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DICHLORIDE OF ETHIDEXE. 389

dentist or his patient. The oil of mustard, though a good anti-
septic of short range, has an irritant action that limits its use.
Yet in cases where it is desirable to arouse the tissues from a state
of inactivity this action, in a high degree, is combined with the
antiseptic property. It is also one of the most diffusible of the
antiseptic oils thus far studied.
" Any of these oils may be used in the emulsion, if, for any
reason, it is not thought well to use the oil in substance. This
form is especially recommended for surfaces of suppurating
wounds and the washing of abscesses. In this way small quanti-
ties of the oil may be widely diffused and left in a multitude of
minute globules, to gradually dissolve where it is most wanted,
forming a kind of connecting link between the true solutions
and the oils in substance. For this purpose a little of the oil
selected may be diffused through water by severe shaking, or bet-
ter, by repeatedly filling and violently emptying the syringe.
The milky emulsion thus formed may be used in the same man-
ner as the solution.
" I have said that all antiseptics are poisons. I wish to em-
phasize this statement. They are antiseptic by virtue of their
power of restraining life forces ; and their use as antiseptics is
permitted only by shades of difference in the action of certain
poisons toward the different forms of life, by which they affect
the fungi more prominently than the animal tissues."

ETHIDENE DICHLORIDUM—DICHLORIDE OF ETHIDENE.
Formula.—CH3CHCI2. Sp. gr. 1,225.
Derivation.— Dichloride of Ethidene is obtained in the prep-
aration of chloral, from the waste products, and is very much
like chloroform in appearance, odor and taste. It has a variable
boiling point of about 115° F., and is readily soluble in alcohol,
sparingly soluble in water, and but slightly soluble in chloroform.
It is inflammable, but less so than alcohol.
Medical Properties and Action.—Dichloride of ethidene is a
general anesthetic, and is said to occupy an intermediate rank
between chloroform and ether. It reduces the action of the