THE ANTISEPTIC ACTION OF CERTAIN 2-FURAN MERCURIALS

¹ From the Pharmacological Laboratory, University of California Medical School, San Francisco

Correlations between pharmacological characteristics of corresponding furan and benzene derivatives have been extended to include analogous mercurated compounds. Phenylmercuric chloride and nitrate are more powerful as antiseptic agents than 2-furylmercuric chloride and nitrate respectively. Mercurated furans seem to be reduced in antiseptic efficiency by the same biochemorphic factors which operate in the case of mercurated benzenes. Thus an alkyl group or halogen placed on the furan ring of 2-furylmercuric chloride decreases its antiseptic action in the same way as similar modification of the benzene-ring in phenylmercuric chloride.