1.-14

34

[j. M. MASON.

It is impregnated with small quantities of indifferent perfumes, such as 01. pini pumilionis and kumarin, but no trace of any narcotic substance could be detected. Zernik cannot imagine how the bandage is to act, unless it be by deadening sound. A number of remedies for gall-stones are next mentioned. These are Gallin, Gallstone Remedy of Koehme (against which the Health Department of Carlsruhe has issued warnings), and Dr. Franke's Gall-stone Remedy. These and similar gall-stone remedies consist of a purgative and a large quantity of some form of oil. The oil, together with the purgative, produce more or less copious evacuations, having a soft, nodular consistence and being bile-ooloured. The manufacturers state that the motions contain softened gall-stones ! Another class of remedies of this nature are those which are supposed to cure jaundice and gall-stones. They contain alkaline saline purgatives and vegetable laxatives. Among other preparations of this class examined he mentions Dr. Ziegler's "Specific" against gall-stones and jaundice, and Lithosan.

[Extract from the British Medical Journal of the 3rd November, 1906, page 1223.] New Drugs and Secret Remedies. Dr. F. Zernik, assistant in the Pharmaceutical Institute of the University of Berlin, has, at the invitation of the Editor of the Btut. mcd. Wochenschrift, undertaken to report on some of the new drugs and secret remedies which are thrown on the market, in order that the busy practitioner may glean something of their therapeutic value. The first instalment, published in the issues of September '6 and October 25, 1906, deals with the following: — Berendorf's Powder for Epilepsy. —Each package contains on an average 275 grams of powder consisting of 53 - 3 per cent, of potassium-bromide, 403 per cent, of octahedral borax, 4 per cent, of zinc-oxide, and 2\5 per cent, water. Dr. Zernik suggests that the borax has probably been added in consequence of a note published in the Berl. Klin Wochenschrift in 1904, in which it was stated that borax could be recommended in cases where bromides could not be tolerated, and especially where hyperacidity was present. It may be added that borax was at one time extensively used in France, and to a less extent in Great Britain, as a remedy for epilepsy; Dr. Zernik adds that zinc-oxide is recognised as a nerve-sedative. The gall-stone remedy of Dr. Med. Franke, of Offenbach, is put up in four bottles. The first contains a small quantity of a highly diluted fluid, probably a vegetable tincture, though its actual nature could not be determined; it is directed that this shall be taken in drops for a few days before the remedy proper is started. The second bottle, to be taken in the evening, contains 1 50 c. cm. of a watery solution of a drug containing emodin (either fraugula or senna or both). The contents of the third bottle, to be taken next morning, are identical with those of the second; the fourth bottle contains 150 c. cm. of an oil, probably olive-oil, faintly coloured red. Lithosan, formerly called " cholosan," made at a chemical works in Berlin, probably contains rhubarb-tincture, peppermint-water, and watery extract of chelidonium and valerian. In spite of the assertions of the manufacturers it was not found to contain lithium. Dr. Zernik suggests that the active principle in this preparation is chelidonium, a remedy formerly employed in the treatmentof catarrhal jaundice. Pearson's 6-per-cent. lodvasogen. —The iodine in this preparation is not free, but is present as ammonium-iodide; the brown colour is artificially produced, and is not due to free iodine. The absence of free iodine accounts for the fact that the preparation does not produce irritation. lodvasolimente is an alternative preparation, sold in shops; the iodine is partly combined with oleic acid or with ammonia, and is partly free; its brown colour is due to the free iodine. Melioform, made by a firm in Berlin, and recommended as a disinfectant, consists of formaldehyde, aluminium-acetate, borax, and glycerine, coloured red and perfumed with bergamot-oil. The proportions were: Formaldehyde solution 25, liq. alumin. acet. 15, borax 25, glycerine 30, water to 100. New Sidonal, made by a firm at Charlottenburg, was found to contain about 75 per cent, of anhydrous quinic acid, and 25 per cent, of free quinic acid. It is therefore surprising that the manufacturers advise subcutaneous and rectal administration of the preparation as well as application by the mouth. Quinic acid, it may be added, is found in cinchona barks and in many other plants; in the preparation of quinine it is left in the filtrate from the precipitated alkaloids. Noordyl drops is a preparation identical with Noowtry's diphtheria remedy; it consists chiefly of an alcoholic solution of oil of ruscus and pix fagi. Ruscus aculeatus is, according to the "National Standard Dispensatory," the ditch grass, sea-grass, or tassel-grass, or tassel pondweed, related to asparagus, and used as a diuretic and diaphoretic. Pix fagi is beechwood tar. Felke's Plant Tonic was found to be a 15-per-cent. aqueous solution of saccharated oxide of iron, to which some 10 per cent, of alcohol and an extract of a purgative drug had been added.