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502 DENTAL MEDICINE.

minishes the practical value of the permanganates. On the
other hand, hydrogen peroxide possesses true disinfectant prop-
erties of a marked character." Fibrin and cellular tissue cause
it to evolve oxygen, while albumen, gelatin, urea, and cutaneous
tissue have no effect upon it.
Topically, it acts by imparting oxygen to the diseased tissues,
and thus destroying them. Bert and Reynard found that soluble
ferments do not seem to be affected by it ; saliva, diastase, the
gastric and pancreatic fluids, continue to act in solutions contain-
ing peroxide of hydrogen. The conclusions, therefore, that
these, as well as Peau and Baldy, have arrived at are that per-
oxide of hydrogen, even when very dilute, arrests fermentation
due to the development of living organisms, and the putrefaction
of all substances whic*h do not decompose it; that containing,
according to circumstances, from two to six times its volume of
oxygen, it is capable of advantageously replacing alcohol and car-
bolic acid j that it can be employed externally for dressing
wounds and ulcerations of all natures, in injections and in vapor-
izations, and internally ; that the results obtained in the
case of the largest operations, up to the present, are in the
highest degree satisfactory ; that not only fresh wounds, but
old ones, proceed rapidly to cicatrization, and reunion by
first intention appears to be encouraged by its use as a
dressing; that the general as well as the local state appears to be
favorably influenced ; that the advantage over carbolized water
are its not having any poisonous effect nor unpleasant odor,
while its application is entirely painless. It is an effective appli-
cation in a large class of diseases in which mucous membrane
tissue is chiefly affected, and for cleansing purposes is considered
to be unequaled. Dr. Prince remarks that a drop of pus will de-
compose peroxide of hydrogen and liberate nascent oxygen,
which adheres to and attacks all the adjacent tissues for which it
has an affinity, and it thus becomes a powerful bacterial destroyer.
Peroxide of hydrogen for surgical use must be entirely neutral,
as that obtained generally often contains sulphuric acid, so that
its use would not be without danger.
Therapeutic Uses.— Peroxide of hydrogen is employed as an