ANTISEPTICS, from ἀντί, and σπείρα, putrid, of σπείρα, I 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:—

Salts, their antiseptic virtue.

Sea salt.....1 Saline mixture..... 3
Sal gemma.....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 num-

Antispasmodics; 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. To these add kreasote, alcohol, and various metallic salts.