236 GUTTA PERCHA MEMBRANE. 
ART. LXVI. — GUTTA PERCHA MEMBRANE. 
For protecting the Skin against the Contagion of Animal Poisons. 
By Willtam Acton, Esq. 
The author states that he has been engaged in perform- 
ing various experiments with solutions of gun cotton, gutta 
percha and caoutchouc, with a view of testing their property 
of protecting the surface from the influence, by contact, of 
contagious poisons, and the following are the conclusions at 
which he arrived : — 1. That a solution of gun cotton, when 
dry, corrugates the skin too much to be available for the 
purposes required. 2. That gutta percha alone is devoid 
of elasticity and sufficient adhesive quality, whilst the so- 
lution of caoutchouc wants body and is too sticky; but that, 
3. The compound solution of caoutchouc and gutta percha 
possesses the requisite qualities to fulfil the purposes re- 
quired. It is prepared by adding a drachm of gutta percha 
to an ounce of benzole, (the volatile principle of coal naph- 
tha) and ten grains of India rubber to the same quantity of 
benzole, each being dissolved at a gentle heat, and then 
mixed in equal proportions. The author has employed this 
compound in painting the surface surrounding a chancre 
with the solution, and found that the acrid secretion had 
no effect upon it when dried, and warm or cold water may 
be applied with impunity. He considers that it may be 
employed advantageously in many and various ways, as in 
protecting the hands during post-mortem examinations, in 
preserving the cheek from excoriation in gonorrhoea! oph- 
thalmia, and in covering the parts contiguous to a sore 
where water dressing is the application, &c. A letter 
from Mr. Quekett to the author stales the results of that 
gentleman's examination of these several solutions under 
the microscope. A dried film of the compound is described 
by him to be perfectly elastic and free from perforations, 
though in many parts less than the r l w of an inch in thick- 
ness. — Pharm. Jour. 
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