January 30, 2019 Wednesday
Bedtime Story
Introducing Calcium Hypochlorite Ca(ClO)2 in Clinic
It is the molecular chlorine that is
released from the compound that is responsible for destroying or disabling a
wide range of potentially harmful bacteria and viruses.
Semmelweis was obviously ignorant of this
information of the mode of action of molecular chlorine and bromine on
microbes.
So why did he chose calcium hypochlorite?
Well, most of would have used bleaching
powder by this age or come across the powder being strewn across public places
that are considered to be highly contaminated and putrid.
While going across such an area you may also
have noticed that the bleaching powder has an ability to squelch out the putrid
vile smell from rotting places and overpowering that smell with its own
characteristic odor of chlorine.
That happens when calcium oxychloride
reacts with carbon dioxide of the atmosphere to calcium carbonate and release
chlorine as gas.
It is this chlorine that destroys the smell
of putrefaction of animal tissue decomposition.
It was the French chemist and pharmacist
Antoine-Germain Labarraque who somewhere around 1820 some two decades before
Ignaz Semmelweis had won a French award for showing that a solution of sodium
hypochlorite destroys the smell of putrefaction as well as retards the
decomposition.
This discovery found its application in the
gut factories France that was a notoriously stinking business but rather a
profitable one as the intestines of animals had its use in the manufacturing of
musical instrumental strings, Goldbeater’s skin and so on.
In 1824 when the French Emperor Kind Louis XVIII
died of extensive gangrene and the body had began to emit foul smell Labarraque
was able to get rid of it by covering the dead gangrenous body of the king with
a sheet soaked in calcium hypochlorite.
In 1826 Labarraque went on to publish a
treatise titled “the application of chlorides to hygiene and therapeutics” for
which he was awarded a medal by the French Academy of Sciences, Letters and
Arts based at Marseille.
Very soon thereafter by 1830 as more
research was carried on the action of chlorides and hypochlorites of lime and
of sodium the use of them began to broaden from gut factories to latrines,
sewers, markets, abattoirs, hospitals, anatomical theatres, morgues, streets,
prisons, infirmaries, cattle-shed, stables and any place foul-smelling you
could think of.
The chemicals also began to be used for
embalming, during exhumations and during outbreak of epidemics of illnesses in
Paris and France.
But Austria was still sterile from the
enlightenment of action of chlorides and hypochlorites of calcium and sodium.
So it was thanks to the French pharmacist
Labarraque that Semmelweis made the choice of sodium hypochlorite as an agent
with which to wash hands before initiating any clinical work for doctors and
midwives.
What did you think was the result of the
action taken by the good Austrian obstetrician?
It was nothing short of dramatic and
sensational!
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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