Permanganate of potassium : its action and uses / by Roberts Bartholow.

  • Bartholow, Roberts, 1831-1904.
Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Permanganate of potassium : its action and uses / by Roberts Bartholow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    violet, or nearly black, needle-shaped rhombic prisms, of a metallic lustre, permanent in the air, odorless, having a sweet, afterward disagreeable, astringent taste, and a neutral reaction. Soluble, with the ex- ception of a scanty brown residue, in 20 parts of water at 59° Fah. (15° C.), and in 3 parts of boiling water. ’ ’ According to the new notation, permanganate of potassium is represented by the formula i^Mn^Og; and to the old, K0.Mn20,. It is remarkable for the quantity of oxygen which it contains, and for the readiness with which it yields it up'in its most active form, or as ozone;—yields it up so readily that it is one of the reagents used to determine the presence of organic matter in potable waters. This process illustrates one of the functions performed by per- manganate of potassium in the human economy. The fine purple color of the solution of this salt in pure water is quickly discharged when brought into contact with organic matter; the oxygen seizes on and oxidizes the organic matter, and the perman- ganate is reduced correspondingly, the color chang- ing to a dirty brown. It is this oxidizing power for which this salt is now employed as a deodorant and antiseptic. The foul odors arising from decomposing organic matter are due chiefly to the compounds of hydrogen with sulphur and phosphorus—the sulphide and phos- phide of hydrogen and some other products. The oxygen in its nascent state seizes on the hydrogen, and sulphur and phosphorus are set free, whence the destruction of odor. The chemical action which re- moves foul odors, does not, necessarily, imply the destruction of germs and other materies fnorbi. Bac- teria, micrococci, and other minute organisms, so often associated with the ordinary products of putre-