Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/607

 ANTISANA ANTISPASMODICS 571 validity of the titles of the landlords, and the legality of the conditions and covenants con- tained in the manor grants. ANTISANA, a volcanic mountain of Ecuador, in the eastern Cordillera, 35 m. 8. E. of Quito, ac- cording to Humboldt, 19,148 ft. high; according to Wisse, 19,279. An eruption in 1590 is re- corded ; and Humboldt saw smoke issuing from several openings in 1802. Four immense lava streams descend from the snowy summit, one of which, the Volcan de Ansango, is 10 m. long and 500 ft. deep. The lava is mainly a black, cellular, trachytic porphyry. But the volcano is now dormant, if not extinct. On its side is Lake Mica, near which is the celebrated Haci- enda, one of the highest habitations in the world and the centre of an extensive corral. Humboldt made its altitude 13,465 feet; Bous- singault, 13,356 ; Orton, 13,300. ANTI-SCORBUTICS. See SOUBVY. ANTISEPTICS (Gr. avrl, against, and ar/irrd^ putrid), substances or means which prevent or arrest putrefaction. Putrefaction is a process which highly complex organic bodies undergo when subjected to the proper conditions of heat, moisture, and air, and no longer con- trolled by the laws of vital chemistry. Nitro- genous or albuminoid bodies are essential to this process, in which they play the double part of being themselves decomposed and, by an imperfectly understood action called catal- ysis, exciting allied changes in other bodies. The growth of living infusorial organisms hold- ing a very low position in the scale of animal or vegetable life, called vibrios and bacteria, is a frequent if not invariable accompaniment of this process ; but it is still a question how es- sential they are in its production. The meth- ods of preventing organic decomposition de- pend upon the removal of some one or more of the conditions necessary for its accomplish- ment. The temperature may be above or be- low the limits at which putrefaction can go on. The preservative effect of cold, and especially of dry cold, is well known, and exemplified in the keeping of meat and fruit on ice or in ice houses. Animals have been found undecomposed in the ice of Siberia, which belong to extinct species and which must have been embalmed in ice for ages. A boiling tem- perature coagulates albumen, kills infusorial organisms, and temporarily arrests putrefac- tion, until the material receives a new ferment from without. The exclusion of air, as in the process of canning fruit and meat, renders the result more permanent. Many substances with- draw water from the tissues, and also from the infusorial organisms, thus causing them to shriyel up and lose their activity. Such are sugar, glycerine, alcohol, and many salts, as common salt, saltpetre (nitrate of potassa), and alum. Fruits are largely preserved in sugar ; many medicinal fluid extracts may be made with glycerine ; and anatomical specimens may be preserved almost indefinitely in glycerine or alcohol. Salt and saltpetre are of the highest value in the preservation of meat. If the water is simply driven off by the heat of the sun and atmosphere, meat may be kept un- changed for a long time in a dry climate. Sev- eral of the agencies first mentioned, such as boiling water, alcohol, and some salts, as well as corrosive sublimate, chloride of zinc (Bur- nett's disinfecting fluid), and tannin, act by coagulating and rendering chemically inert albuminous substances. Corrosive sublimate is used but little except for anatomical purposes. Chloride of zinc is an excellent disinfectant for ships, hospitals, dissecting rooms, and water closets, and is also used to preserve bodies for dissection. Tannin forms with the gelatine of the skin, in leather, one of the most enduring of organic compounds. Prof. Brunetti of Padua has used tannic acid very successfully in the preservation, as anatomical specimens, of various internal organs. Bodies have been found perfectly preserved in peat bogs, that must have been undergoing the tanning process for hundreds of years. Many of the most use- ful antiseptics act not only in one or more of the ways mentioned, but also either as poi- sons to the infusoria accompanying decomposi- tion, or as opposing the catalytic action of fer- ments. Quinia, for instance, has been found to have both these properties in a high degree, killing infusoria immediately in the proportion of one part to 800, in some minutes at 1 to 2,000, in some hours at 1 to 20,000, and pre- venting or retarding the formation of carbonic acid from sugar, the reaction of emulsine upon amygdaline, and of ozone upon guaiacum. As a preservative against actual putrefaction, it was found, weight for weight, less efficient than corrosive sublimate. Carbolic acid, creasote, chloroform, and perhaps the volatile oils, act in this way. Carbolic acid has been largely used of late years as a surgical antiseptic dressing, in watery solution, 1 to 30 ; diluted with glyce- rine, with alcohol, with oil, as putty, or as plas- ter with shellac. The antiseptic treatment de- mands that all wounds should be carefully pro- tected from the air by some of the forms of carbolic acid dressing just mentioned, even a finger used in examination or an amputating knife being dipped in carbolic acid oil, lest they should carry living germs to the wounded sur- face. The action of creasote finds useful appli- cation in the smoking of meat. Volatile oils and resins were probably the active agents in the ancient process of embalming. Chlorine, and sometimes iodine, act as disinfectants by withdrawing hydrogen from products of putre- faction, allowing the nascent oxygen and other remaining elements to form simpler and more stable combinations, and as antiseptics by poi- soning infusoria or destroying the activity of ferments. ANTISPASMODICS, the means of removing spasm. Spasm or cramp occurs in muscular structures, and is caused by irritation of the nerves. Spasm consists in an irregular and sometimes excessive action of a group of mus-