A DRUG WITH X-RAY QUALITIES

IN AN ARTICLE CONTRIBUTED to Le Matin (Paris), Dr. Pierre Louis Rehm tells of a communication made to the Academy of Science in which two French collaborators, one of them director of the Bureau of Hygiene at Reims, announce the discovery that a familiar antiseptic, hypochlorite of sodium, may exercise its germ-destroying action without being brought into actual contact with the germs. A quartz tube containing the antiseptic diluted with water from the tap is placed in a receptacle containing a contaminated fluid, and left there for twenty-four hours, when, according to the report, about one-fourth of the microbes have been destroyed.

Under these paradoxical conditions, the germicidal action of the drug is reported to be more active in the dark than in the light—a matter of significance, since sunlight is known to be germicidal. Says Dr. Rehm:

“The explanation? There is only the hypothesis of M. Philippe Bunau-Varilla, of the experimenters, to the effect that the molecule of sodium hypochlorite, in attacking organic matter, must emit rays analogous to ultraviolet rays in their germicidal action. That is the reason why quartz tubes, which transmit ultra-violet light are used, instead of glass, which is opaque to this light.

“It is possible that this unpredictable discovery may have important applications in the fields of medicine and hygiene. Galvini’s experiment with frogs was a small affair, yet it contained the germ of the modern development of electricity. Yesterday, for the first time, it became known that an antiseptic may act without contact—as it were, by induction.”

All of which may be said to be important if true. Doubtless experiments so startling in their seeming implications will not long await verification or refutation at the hands of other workers.

Source: The Literary Digest for July 25, 1925

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2. Medical Achievements 1929
3. Magnesium Salt 1930
4. Brain Wave Study 1927
5. Genetic Criminal Traits 1925

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