SALIVA AS A MICROBE KILLER.
The following description of a natural antiseptic in the human system, and of its possible artificial use, is taken from Daheim, June 15: “It was already known that secretions of the mucous membranes, especially saliva, possess antiseptic properties under certain circumstances, which explains the reason why the germs which enter daily and hourly through the mouth do not reach a harmful development; but Edinger has now found the active material in potassium rhodanate, which is present in saliva. Potassium rhodanate is a compound of sulphur cyanogen, and potassium, and is, in large quantities, narcotically poisonous to warm-blooded animals; it is, like other rhodanates, fatal to bacilli. A quinolin rhodanate, lately produced, is said, in a solution of three parts to the thousand, to kill the cholera bacillus in a minute, and, in a solution of three times this strength, to kill the diphtheria bacillus in the same time. It was found by further researches that this rhodanate has the effect of carbolic acid and of corrosive sublimate, and at the same time is harmless to man. Saliva, especially that of fasting persons, plays a great part in popular medicine; and beasts, by licking, keep their wounds clean and bring them to a quick healing without suppuration.”—Literary Digest.