Hypochlorous Acid as an Antiseptic in Wounds *Abstract of a lecture delivered at the Dacca Medical School.

an impossibility in future ? This is indeed the high-water-mark of exaggeration ! I shall try and put the subject before you in a simple and connected way that you may not be misled by anything you should read about it. I am very largely indebted to three articles * which have recently appeared in the British Medical Journal, two by I)r. Dakin and (1) and (2) one by Professor Lorrain Smith, and I claim 110 originality for what I have to say. History of hypochlorous acid.?In A. 1). 1788 the French Chemist Berthollet discovered a liquid with bleaching and disinfectant properties by mixing chlorine gas with an aqueous solution of soda salts. In 1792 a similar liquid was manufactured commercially at Javel near Paris, using potash instead of soda solution ; it was known at " Eau de Javel." In 1820 Labarraque prepared a solution almost identical with Berthollet's and