Chromic acid. In deep-red, needle-form crystals, deliquescent, and very soluble in water, forming an orange-red solution.

Actions and Uses

Chromic acid is an oxidizing caustic. When the action ceases, sesquioxide of chromium remains. It is slow in action, and not very painful, but it penetrates deeply and is remarkably destructive. Small animals, as mice and birds, are dissolved entirely, bones and all, by chromic acid. Owing to the fact that it penetrates deeply without much pain, care must be used in its application as a caustic, lest it injure parts which are not intended to be affected. When it is applied as a caustic, the surrounding tissues must be well protected. For the destruction of malignant growths, haemorrhoids, warts, etc., the acid should be made into a paste by the addition of sufficient water. The part to which it is applied first becomes yellow, then brownish, and ultimately black, and the eschar is detached in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

A solution of chromic acid of the strength of one hundred grains to an ounce of distilled water is an efficient local application in syphilitic warts and vegetations, condylomata, lupus, sycosis, tinea tonsurans etc. A still stronger solution (grs. xv — 3 j of hot water) has been injected into the uterine cavity with success in cases of uterine haemorrhage and uterine catarrh (Wooster).

Authorities referred to:

Busch, Dr. F. Annuaire de Thérapeutique, vol. xxiv, p. 229.

Heller, Dr. Ibidem, 1853, p. 283.

Marshall, John. The Lancet, 1857, vol. i, p. 88.

Wooster, Dr. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 1869, p. 367.