TION is an antiseptic containing free chlorine and designed for the treatment of infected wounds. First used during the World War, it was the product of long study by Henry Drysdale Dakin and Alexis Carrel in search of the ideal wound antiseptic. The stronger germicidal solutions, such as carbolic acid and iodine, damage liv ing cells, or lose their potency in the presence of blood serum. Dakin's solution avoids both these defects and in addition has a solvent action on dead tissue which hastens its separation from living tissue. By combination between the slowly liberated chlorine and the tissue proteins, Dakin believes that a chloi amine is formed, to which is due the extraordinary antiseptic power exhibited by Dakin's solution in vivo. The solution now commonly used is a modification proposed by Dufresne and embodied in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia as Liquor Sodae Clalorinatae Clairurgi calis. It is prepared from bleaching powder and the carbonate and bicarbonate of soda, and must contain 0.45 to 0.50% of sodium hypochlorite and no free alkali. It is unstable and will not keep more than a few days. The Carrel-Dakin treatment consists in flooding the entire wound surface every two hours, by means of small tubes connected with a reservoir. Used in this way, Dakin's solution is the best preparation now known for controlling infec tion in wounds and abscess cavities.