Bromum

Brome

Bromine

Bromine. Brome, Fr.; Brom, Ger. A dark-red liquid, having a strong, disagreeable odor. It is sparingly soluble in water, more soluble in alcohol, and still more so in ether.

Physiological Actions

The actions of bromine, considered from the chemical point of view, are similar to those of chlorine: it decomposes hydrogen compounds, forming bromhydric acid, and precipitating or separating the element associated with hydrogen. It is therefore a deodorant and antiseptic. The vapor of bromine is intensely irritant to the air-passages. It combines with the water and sets free ozone, which energetically attacks the mucous membrane. In sufficient quantity, laryngitis, bronchitis, and pneumonia will be produced by the inhalation of its vapor. Applied in the liquid form, and undiluted, bromine acts as an energetic and very painful escharotic. A brownish slough is formed, which is afterward slowly detached. Internally, by the stomach, bromine acts as a corrosive poison, producing violent gastritis, and the phenomena of depression and collapse, which attend the action of corrosive poisons in general.

Therapy

The vapor of bromine is an efficient remedy in acute coryza and hay-asthma: Rx Bromi, 3 ss; alcoholis, oz iv. M. Sig.: For inhalation. A small quantity of this solution may be placed in a wide-mouthed vial, and vaporized by the warmth of the hand. The vapor should be snuffed into the nose. It probably acts, as already explained, by setting free ozone. The activity of the pollen of plants, the presence of which gives rise to the symptoms of hay-asthma, is destroyed. The offensiveness of an ozaena may be removed by the same expedient. Chronic nasal catarrh may not infrequently be greatly benefited by the vapor of bromine. Hammond has proposed the internal use of a solution of bromine, as a substitute for the bromides in the treatment of epilepsy. Besides its disagreeable qualities, and its irritant action, it has no advantages over the bromides.

The most important use of bromine is as an escharotic. For the destruction of chancre, it is probably the best caustic. Hospital gangrene, the experience of the rebellion demonstrated, was more certainly arrested by bromine than by any other escharotic.

For the destruction of carcinoma uteri, this agent is preferred by some eminent gynaecologists. When used for these purposes, pure bromine is applied, by means of a glass rod, thoroughly, to the diseased or sloughing or gangrenous surface.

The objections to the use of bromine are its fetid odor, its volatility (boils at 117° Fahr.), and the pain which attends its escharotic action.