HYPOCHLORITE OF LIME.

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and occasionally, according to Cima, purging. Under the continued useof it, hard and enlarged absorbent glands have become softer and smaller,from which circumstance it has been supposed to exercise a specificinfluence over, and promote the healthy action of, the lymphatic system.During its employment, Cima says he did not find it necessary to givepurgatives. Dr. Reid [Trans, of the Associat. of Fellows and Licentiates of the College of Physicians in Ireland , vol. v. 1828), gave it in the epide-mic fever which raged in Ireland in 182(1, and he tells that it renderedthe tongue cleaner, abated the delirium, and promoted the cutaneousfunctions. In dysentery it soon put a stop to the bloody evacuations,the umbilical pain, and the tenesmus.

I am not acquainted with any facts respecting the effects of chloride oflime in large or poisonous doses. Analogy would lead us to expect thatit would produce the combined effects of a caustic, and of an agent spe-cifically affecting the nervous system.

Uses. —The chlorides (hypochlorites) of lime and soda are extensivelyemployed as disinfectants and antiseptics. I have already stated (p 107)that chlorine gas stands unrivalled for its power of destroying putridodours and checking putrefaction, and where uninhabited chambers orbuildings are to be purified, fumigations with this gas should be adopted.But its powerful action on the organs of respiration precludes its use ininhabited places, and, in such cases, the alkaline chlorides (chloride oflime, on account of its cheapness) are to be substituted. When thesesubstances are in contact with organic matter, it is supposed the hypo-chlorite gives out oxygen, and is converted into a metallic chloride : theoxygen being the effective disinfecting and antiseptic agent. When,however, the solution of the chloride (hypochlorite) is exposed to the air,carbonic acid is attracted by the lime, and hypochlorous acid set free :this is decomposed by the calcium of the chloride, lime is formed, whichcombines with carbonic acid of the air, and chlorine (from both the hypo-chlorous acid and chloride of calcium) is disengaged, and furnishesoxygen to the putrefying matter at the expense of some water, with thehydrogen of which it combines. Hence these chlorides (hypochlorites)when exposed to the air evolve chlorine so slowly and in such moderatequantities, as not to produce any noxious effects, though their action onorganic matters is very powerful. Their most obvious effect is that ofdestroying the unpleasant odour of putrid matter. Their action onhydrosulphuric acid, ammonia, and hydrosulphate of ammonia (substancesevolved by decomposing animal matters) can be readily and easily de-monstrated. Other odorous principles given out by putrid matters are,by the experience of most persons, admitted to be destroyed by theaikaline chlorides, though Piorry ( Journ. Chim. Med. ii. 601) has assertedthey are only overpowered by the stronger smell of the chlorine.

The alkaline chlorides (hypochlorites) possess another valuable pro-perty—that of stopping or checking the putrefactive process; and hencethey are called antiseptics. For various facts in proof of this I mustrefer to the late Mr. Alcock’s Essay on the Uses of the Chlorurets.

These two properties, viz. that of destroying offensive odours and thatof preventing putrefaction, render the alkaline chlorides most valuableagents to the medical practitioner. We apply them to gangrenousparts, to ulcers of all kinds attended with foul secretions, to compound