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Most of the agents that the dermatologist uses today have come down to him from the days of empiricism, when dermatology was purely an art and before the present admixture of science. He has come to rely on these agents as a result of experience gained long before chemistry and physics came to tell him why he used them. However valuable they may be, the explanation of their action has practically always led to improvement in their use or to substitution of better agents. It is therefore natural that the dermatologist should want ultimately to explain how his agents work. Since reducing agents are among the most frequent and important substances that the dermatologist uses and are at the same time not widely understood, I have felt it worth while to study them and record some of my findings. This first paper will deal with the theory of