§ 128. =Uses.=--Potassic chlorate is largely used as an oxidiser in calico printing, and in dyeing, especially in the preparation of aniline black. A considerable quantity is consumed in the manufacture of lucifer matches and fireworks; it is also a convenient source of oxygen. Detonators for exploding dynamite are mixtures of fulminate of mercury and potassic chlorate. It is employed as a medicine both as an application to inflamed mucous membranes, and for internal administration; about 2000 tons of the salt for these various purposes are manufactured yearly in the United Kingdom. § 129. =Poisonous Properties.=--The facility with which potassic chlorate parts with its oxygen by the aid of heat, led to its very extensive employment in medicine. No drug, indeed, has been given more recklessly, or on a less scientific basis. Wherever there were sloughing wounds, low fevers, and malignant sore throats, especially those of a diphtheritic character, the practitioner administered potassic chlorate in colossal doses. If the patient died, it was ascribed to the malignity of the disease--if he recovered, to the oxygen of the salt; and it is possible, from the light which of recent years has been thrown on the action of potassic chlorate, that its too reckless use has led to many unrecorded accidents. § 130. =Experiments on Animals.=--F. Marchand[127] has studied the effects of potassic chlorate on animals, and on blood. If either potassic chlorate or sodic chlorate is mixed with fresh blood, it shows after a little while peculiar changes; the clear red colour at first produced passes, within a few hours, into a dark red-brown, which gradually becomes pure brown. This change is produced by a 1 per cent. solution, in from fifteen to sixteen hours; and a 4 per cent. solution at 15° destroys every trace of oxyhæmoglobin within four hours. Soon the blood takes a syrupy consistence, and, with a 2-4 per cent. solution of the salt, passes into a jelly-like mass. The jelly has much permanence, and resists putrefactive changes for a long time. [127] _Virchow’s Archiv. f. path. Anat._, Bd. 77, Hft. 3, S. 455, 1879.