EXPERIMENTAL COMPARISON OF SEVERAL ALKYLMERCURIC CHLORIDES AS "SKIN STERILIZING" AGENTS

¹ From the Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee

The compounds R-Hg-Cl, in which R is methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, n-butyl, n-amyl and n-heptyl, have been tested as skin disinfectants, using the in vivo "skin-graft" technique on rabbit skin. The 0.0036 molar solutions in 70 per cent ethanol all gave a high percentage of sterile skin snips. If the 0.0036 molar (1:1000) solution of n-propylmercuric chloride is taken as a standard, and the above results thus compared with those of Bass (1), it is found that solutions of the simple alkylmercuric chlorides are as effective as any and more effective than many of the commonly used antiseptic solutions when compared by this method.