On the physiological and medicinal properties of bromine and its compounds; also on the analogies between the physiological and medicinal properties of these bodies, and those of chlorine and iodine, with their correspondent compounds / [Robert Mortimer Glover].

  • Glover, Robert Mortimer, 1816-1859
Date:
[1842]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the physiological and medicinal properties of bromine and its compounds; also on the analogies between the physiological and medicinal properties of these bodies, and those of chlorine and iodine, with their correspondent compounds / [Robert Mortimer Glover]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/54 (page 5)
    6. Chlorine decomposes the bromides and bromine the iodides of electro-positive metals ; but when we get to the electro-nega¬ tive metals, there are indications of a tendency to inversion of these affinities. Thus iodine, heated along with calomel in water, gives rise to the formation of red iodide of mercury and corrosive sub¬ limate ; and hydrobromic and hydriodic acids decompose the ter- chloride of gold. Among other remarkable relations between the halogenous ele¬ ments may be mentioned their association together in the sea and its productions. I may here state incidentally, that I have found another instance of the coexistence of these bodies in a salt spring, that of Birtley, in the county of Durham, where bromine and io¬ dine exist in very appreciable quantity. On the whole, we may conclude from the chemical facts which I have thus connected, that bromine is more allied in chemical properties to chlorine than to iodine. The subjects of this paper may be conveniently arranged as follow :—ls£, Of the Physiological Properties of Bromine and its Compounds—the Hydrobromic Acid, Bromides of Potassium, Sodium, Magnesium, Barium, Zinc, Iron, Mercury, Cyanogen, and Olefiant Gas, with Bromoform, and of the analogies which they offer with Chlorine and Iodine, and their correspondent compounds, some of which we shall have to examine where they appear to need investigation; 2d, Of the Medicinal part of the Inquiry ; 3d, General Conclusions. Part. I.—Physiological Properties of Bromine and its Compounds. All substances which can exert a chemical action on compo¬ nent parts of the tissues of organized beings, and therefore, when applied to them, cause a physical lesion, must be irritant, or ca¬ pable of giving rise to a series of phenomena which appear in such cases to be partly of a reactive character. The first question that we have to ask, therefore, regards the power of bromine to act che¬ mically on the tissues. The exact nature of this action is yet ob¬ scure. Beyond the mere fact of the coagulation of albumen by bromine, but little information on this subject is to be found in works.* Indeed, great doubt may be entertained with regard to the nature of the action of all corrosive substances on the animal tissues. Thus, while Mulder describes a series of regular atomic compounds formed by the action of acids on albumen, such as the sulpho-proteic acid, Pr + S03 Dr Samuel Brown maintains that the action of acids on albumen is altogether catalytic.•(* If we look * See Ann. de Chimie, T. xxxii. Raspail, Systeme de Chimie Organique, p. 201. Berzelius, Traite de Chimie, T. viii. p. 03. f E in. Academic Annual for 1840.