Laplace has shown the importance of acidulating sublimate solutions for general antiseptic use. Neutral solutions on mingling with blood or other albuminous fluids become more or less inert by the precipitation of the albuminate of mercury. That precipitate is not formed in the presence of hydrochloric or tartaric acids. The proportion for sterilizing wounds should be five parts of the acid to one of the sublimate in one thousand of water. [Biniodide solutions require no acid. This is one of the many advantages of the mercuric iodide over the bichloride for antiseptic use. In a series of experiments made for the purpose of determining the reaction of biniodide solutions on albuminous fluids we found that neutral solutions of the biniodide of mercury yield no precipitate with albuminous fluids. No reaction was obtained with a biniodide solution acidulated with hydrochloric acid in the proportion of five parts to the thousand. The addition of organic acids, such as acetic, citric or tartaric, as is well known, causes a precipitate of albuminate of mercury. There is no chemical incompatibility between sublimate soap and biniodide solutions.] TRICHLORIDE OF IODINE. One of the new antiseptic agents is iodine trichloride. In contact with organic bodies it gives off iodine and chlorine in the nascent state. The final products, moreover, hydrochloric and iodic acids, are well known oxidizing agents. The strength of solution used is one part in 1,000 or one in 500 parts of water. Such a solution is equivalent in sterilizing power to a 1:1,000 or 2,000 sublimate solution. [One disadvantage of this antiseptic is the powerful corrosive action of nascent chlorine and iodine upon metal instruments.] DANGERS OF ANTISEPTICS. Senger (Br. M. J., May 19, 1888,) has proved by experiments on dogs and rabbits that the antiseptic agents commonly employed are liable to cause degeneration of the kidneys. He injected into perfectly healthy animals corrosive sublimate, carbolic acid, etc., in one-twelfth the quantity necessary to kill them. Then on extirpation of one kidney he found in all cases, on microscopical examination, glomerulo-nephritis. He also found fatty degeneration of the liver, spleen, the heart-muscle, etc. The various antiseptic agents were found to be injurious in different degrees, corrosive sublimate being the most dangerous, then the others in the following order: iodoform, carbolic acid, salicylic acid, boric acid. These observations especially enforce the importance of avoiding the use of antiseptics in the abdominal cavity, or in other large cavities under conditions favorable to absorption. Sterilized water or a five per cent. chloride of sodium solution should be substituted for use in the peritoneum. Senger has shown that the salt solution in no way injures the organs, and that it possesses moderate antiseptic power, killing the streptococcus pyogenes aureus in twenty-eight minutes.