HYPOCHLORITE OF LIME.

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The statements of Labarraque (Alcock’s Essay, pp. 56, 58, &c.) andothers as to the preservative powers of the chlorides in typhus, measles,&c. are too loose and general to enable us to attach much value tothem.

Considered in reference to medical police, the power of the alkalinechlorides (hypochlorites) to destroy putrid odours and prevent putrefac-tion is of vast importance. Thus chloride of lime may be employed toprevent the putrefaction of corpses previously to interment, to destroy theodour of exhumed bodies during medico-legal investigations, to destroybad smells, and prevent putrefaction in dissecting-rooms and workshopsin which animal substances are employed (as cat-gut manufactories), todestroy the unpleasant odour from privies, sewers, drains, wells, docks,&c., to disinfect ships, hospitals, prisons, stables, &c. The various modesof applying it will readily suggest themselves. For disinfecting corpses,a sheet should be soaked in a pailful of water containing a pound ofchloride, and then wrapped around the body. For destroying the smellof dissecting-rooms, &c. a solution of the chloride may be applied bymeans of a garden watering-pot. When it is considered desirable tocause the rapid evolution of chlorine gas, hydrochloric acid may lie addedto chloride of lime.

Chloride of lime (or chloride of soda) is the best antidote in poisoningby hydrosulphuric acid, hydrosulphuret of ammonia, sulphuret of potas-sium, and hydrocyanic acid. It decomposes and renders them inert. Aj solution should be administered by the stomach, and a sponge or hand-kerchief soaked in the solution, held near the nose, so that the vapourmay be inspired. It was by breathing air impregnated with the vapourarising from chloride of lime that Mr. Roberts (the inventor of the miner’simproved safety lamp), was enabled to enter and traverse with safety thesewer of the Bastile, which had not been cleansed for 37 years, andwhich was impregnated with hydrosulphuric acid. (Alcock’s Essay.) Ifa person be required to enter a place suspected of containing hydrosul-phuric acid, a handkerchief moistened with a solution of chloride of limeshould be applied to the mouth and nostrils, so that the inspired air maybe purified before it passes into the lungs.

A solution of chloride of lime has been used as a wash in some skindiseases. Derheims ( Journ. Chim. Med. iii. 575) used a strong solutionwith great success in scabies. This mode of curing itch is much cleaner,and more agreeable, than the ordinary method by sulphur frictions.It has likewise been found successful by Fantonetti {Journ. deChim. Med. ix. 305) in tinea capitis: where the discharge is co-pious, washes of the chloride may be used with advantage. In burnsand scalds Lisfranc employed lotions of chloride of lime either imme-diately after the accident, or subsequent to the application of emol-lient poultices.

Solutions of chloride of lime have been employed with great benefit inophthalmia. Dr. Varlez, surgeon to the military hospital at Brussels,{Med. and Phys. Journ. Nov. 1827) states that in 400 cases it never dis-appointed him once. Mr. Guthrie has also reported favourably of it inthree cases ; as have likewise MM. Colson, Delatte, and Raynaud. Thesolution used by Dr. Varlez was composed of from a scruple to three orfour drachms of chloride, and an ounce of water. It was dropped into

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