ANTISCORBUTICS, medicines good in scorbute cases. ANTISEPTICS, from anti, and σπείρε, putrid, of σπείρε, putrefy, an appellation given to such substances as resist putrefaction. We have some curious experiments in relation to antiseptic substances by Dr Pringle, who has ascertained their several virtues. Thus, in order to settle the antiseptic virtue of salts, he compared it with that of common sea-salt, which being one of the weakest, he supposes equal to unity, and expresses the proportional strength of the rest by the higher numbers, as in the following table.

Sea salt.....1 Saline mixture.....3
Sal gemmæ.....1+ Nitre.....4+
Tartar vitriolated.....2 Salt of hartshorn.....4+
Spiritus Mindereri.....2 Salt of wormwood.....4+
Tartarus solubilis.....2 Borax.....12+
Sal diureticus.....2+ Salt of amber.....20+
Crude sal ammoniac.....3 Alum.....30+

In this table the proportions are marked in integral numbers; only to some there is added the sign +, to show that those salts are possessed of a stronger antiseptic virtue than the number in the table expresses, by some fractions; unless in the three last, where the same sign imports that the salt may be stronger by some units.