A NEW ANTISEPTIC.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XX, Issue 5258, 18 October 1915, Page 2

A NEW ANTISEPTIC.

SCIENTIST’S DISCOVERY

The long-sought-for ideal antiseptic which would destroy the septic agents in wounds without damaging the tissues would appear to have been discovered by Dr. Alexis'Carrel., of the Rockefeller Institute, assisted by Mr Henry Dakin, the chemist, as the Result of a series of experiments conducted at the Military Hospital at Compiegne under the direction of Dr. Carrel.

Dr Carrel’s discovery was the subject of a paper read by Professor Landouzy liefore the Academy of Scie rices recent ly. He explained that the most powerful antiseptic known to science was hypochloride of lime, but that this had up till now been of no practical utility on account of the difficulty of preserving it, and because of its acidity, which was injurious to human tissues.

Dr Carrel and Mr Dakin, he said, had surmounted thi'se difficulties by adding lx>ric acid as a preservative and carbonate of lime to counteract the aciditv.

The new preparation, said the professor, had lioeii applied to the most frightful wounds, with the result that within eight days their aspect had been modified in a way quite unknown under the old antiseptic processes. Cases of gangrene luid been radically prevented at the very outset. Indeed if the new antiseptic was applied in time, it was not too much to say that the infection of wounds might henceforth be considered impossible.