Should we not expect, yes, even demand, that the producer of fluid extracts make his products conform to some standard of excellence-that he shall indicate what effects his fluid extracts may be expected to have ere he sends them forth from his laboratory? It has been shown that even drugs selected with care vary most extraordinarily in their percentage of active principles. Witness, for example, this statement by the editor of a leading pharmaceutical journal who knows whereof he speaks : Bulletin of Pharmacy, January, 1899. "Professor Puckner assayed nineteen samples of belladonna leaves procured, mind you, from dealers who were told that only the best was wanted, and that purchase would depend upon the results of assay. He found these nineteen samples to range in alkaloidal content from .01 to .51 per cent! The strongest sample fifty-one times as strong as the weakest." The most careful treatment of such drugs, with the choicest menstrua, and by the most approved process, will yield preparations that may be fair to look upon, but in medicinal value they will vary just as much as the crude drugs from which they are made. The compensatory remedy for this unfortunate condition is standardization-chemical standardization when practicable, and when that method is inadmissible, as it often is, physiological standardization. It has been found that certain important drugs cannot be assayed chemically, as their medicinal virtues reside in unstable bodies, and these are readily decomposed in the analytical processes. For this reason the strength of such powerful and useful drugs as digitalis, aconite, convallaria, strophanthus, ergot, cannabis Indica and many others cannot be determined satisfactorily by the analytical chemist. However the problem which proved to be an insurmountable difficulty to the chemist, was solved by the pharmacologist with ease. He tests upon living animals all drugs that cannot be assayed chemically. Dogs, rabbits, fowls and guinea-pigs receive doses of the preparations under examination. Accurate observations of their physiologic effects are made, variations are noted and corrected, until the preparations correspond in medicinal strength with the adopted standard extracts. Formerly the physician was obliged to make his own physiologic tests of ergot, digitalis and so on; not upon dogs and guinea-pigs, however, but upon his patients. The old way was to begin with small doses of powerful drugs and then to push them until the desired effect was produced. The new way is a much better one it is safer for the patient, more satisfactory to the physician, and it is more scientific. Prompt results are assured, for the physician knows just how much fluid extract of ergot, aconite or cannabis Indica he need include in his initial dose to secure a definite result. The name of the greatest pharmaceutical manufacturing house in this country is so closely linked with the phrase, "drug standardization," that the mere mention of one suggests the other. Parke, Davis & Co. began years ago to manufacture a full line of standardized fluid extracts that are guaranteed to be of definite and uniform strength. More recently they devised and perfected methods for standardizing physiologically those important drugs that are incapable of analysis by chemical processes. Parke, Davis & Co. have done a great deal for the medical profession and for humanity, and standardization, more especially physiological standardization is one of their greatest achieve ments. Notes and Personals. Dr. Wm. W. Van Baum announces, in the December "Hahnemannian Monthly," his retirement from the editorial chair of that splendid journal. Dr. Van Baum has been eminently successful in his editorial work, and his ready pen will be sadly missed in the journalistic field. Under his able direction the "Hahnemannian" has become one of the great periodicals of our school. Dr. Bartlett will succeed Dr. Van Baum as editor, January, 1901. In his "After Surgery Had Done Its Best" letter to the "Homeopathic Recorder," Dr. T. F. Allen might have been less mysterious, and told us what that "other procedure" was. Dr. W. A. Humphrey has moved to Toledo, Ohio, and has fitted up offices at 2235 Maplewood Avenue. We congratulate Dr. Humphrey in receiving the highest markings in the examination before the State Board of Medical Examiners of Ohio, according to a letter from Dr. Beebe, one of its examiners; this notwithstanding there were graduates from Jefferson and Bellvue who had taken the New York and Pennsylvania examinations. THE CRITIQUE wishes the Doctor success. Drs. Z. B. Babbitt and F. H. Kirby, of Washington, are in Denver representing The Elmer Gates Hydromagnetic Separator. They are giving demonstrations with this separator at 1628 Broadway. All who are interested in a machine that separates the black sand from the sand by either the dry or wet process should call and examine the workings of this separator. A new edition of "Sheldon Leavitt's Obstetrics" has been announced and is now due. December 7th there were eighty cases of scarlet fever in Denver. The Weltmer system of healing is but another name for suggestion, or a species of hypnotism. Anesthesia by subarachnoid injections of cocain is now em. ployed with success in the city and county hospitals of San Francisco. Smallpox is said to be prevalent in some localities in Western Nebraska, but it is generally of so mild a type that no quarantine has been deemed necessary. Drs. Smythe and Mastin, also Anderson and Tennant, are each putting in their office a Wagner's Mica Plate Static Machine, enabling them to do first-class X-ray work, and all that belongs to electro-therapeutics. Dr. Geo. E. Brown is also adding one of these machines to the equipment of his office. Dr. Lillian Pollock of the Denver College, now engaged in practice in Denver, was recently elected Supreme Medical Examiner for the Independent Order of Maccabees, Western Jurisdiction. This is a fraternal insurance Order, organized in October, for the nine northwestern states. The Corning-Bier system of Anesthesia by injecting cocain into the spinal cord, has recently been used in Denver for the first time, in two cases. One was the forcible straightening of an inflamed knee joint; the other was an operation requiring a “long incision." Both "were successful beyond the expectations of the surgeon." In Detroit, Michigan, the Board of Health recently adopted a resolution requiring each physician to report all cases of tonsilitis coming under his care, so that a "medical inspector" may be sent by the Board "to see that the same is not diphtheria." According to "The Medical Counsellor" "the regulation will be more honored in the breach than in the observance." Dr. W. A. Dewey, professor of materia medica and therapeutics in the homeopathic department of the University of Michigan, has been elected an honorary member of the Mexican Homeopathic Medical Society. Mr. Adna Adams Treat, father of Mrs. Dr. N. G. Burnham, of Denver, died December 9, 1900, at the remarkable age of 103 years, eight months and one day. It has been claimed by some that the high altitude of Denver makes against prolonged life, but in this case Mr. Treat remained in good health and in full possession of his mental faculties up to the day of his death. He was the oldest Mason in the United States. Book Reviews. PRACTICAL HOMEOPATHIC THERAPEUTICS.-By W. A. Dewey, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Michigan Homeopathic Medical College; Member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, corresponding member of the British Homeopathic Medical Society, and of the Societe Francaise D'Homeopathie; Author of "Essentials of Homeopathic Materia Medica," etc., etc. Boericke and Tafel, Philadelphia, 1901. pp. 380. Price, cloth, $2.50 net; by mail, $2.70. Nothing so well describes the character of this valuable work as the title "Practical Homeopathic Therapeutics," because it is so essentially practical in every sense of the word. It is also, we are glad to say, distinctively Homeopathic-something not so very common among our authors in these modern days, and therefore worthy of particular mention. The preface says, “It dif fers from the works on the practice of medicine in that it is exclusively devoted to Homeopathy, and from works on Materia Medica, as it treats only of therapeutics." Such a work from such a writer will at once arrest professional attention. It has recently been said that "What Homeopatby needs is more Homeopathy," and Dr. Dewey has fully met the conditions in this book. Without discussing the etiology, clinical history or pathology of diseases, he at once proceeds to their Homeopathic treatment, and this is done in such a masterly manner, and with such clear cut, comprehensive indications for his remedies, as to command every reader's admiration. The arrangement is simple and especially adapted to quick and ready reference. For the youngest beginner and the oldest veteran in our ranks this work will be found equally valuable as a guide to pure Homeopathic therapeutics. The book is handsomely bound and printed after the well known methods of Boericke & Tafel, and we take pleasure in recommending it to the whole profession. ENLARGED Tonsils Cured by MedicINE.-By J. Compton Burnett, M. D., London, England. Boericke & Tafel, Publishers, Philadelphia. Price cloth, 60 cents, net; by mail, 65 cents. The perusal of this little book will do many of our younger colleagues good in more ways than one. Dr. Burnett believes that the tonsils have an important function to perform in the human economy, and the first duty of the physician is to preserve them as fully as possible. He also teaches that, in the majority of cases of enlarged tonsils, well-directed homeopathic treatment is capable of restoring them to their normal condition and function. Among the older homeopaths this is no new thing, and its truth has been demonstrated in thousands of cases. Among the younger fry, however, the opinion prevails that "the easiest way is the best way," and that the immediate removal of enlarged tonsils is scientific and legitimate on all occasions. This latest brochure of Burnett contains many valuable hints, as do all of his works, and is well calculated to interest and instruct the careful reader. PHYSICIANS' VISITING LIST FOR 1901.-By Lindsay & Blakistons, with Special Memoranda; for twenty-five patients per day or week. Price, plain binding, 75 cents; leather cover, pocket and pencil, $1. This is by far the best visiting list on the market, it is so compact and so simply arranged. Publishers, P. Blakiston's Son & Company, Philadelphia, Pa. MANUAL OF THE DISEASES OF THE EYE.-For students and general practitioners, with 243 original illustrations, including twelve colored figures. By Charles H. May, M. D. Published by William Wood & Company, New York. This book has 406 pages, and is divided into twenty-six chapters. The illustrations are, excepting those showing instruments, original. This book contains a full index, so that any subject can be found at once. This is a book that every physician should have upon his table for quick, ready reference. Things to Remember. WHEN FATHER CARVES THE DUCK. We all look on with anxious eyes Then all of us prepare to rise He braces up and grabs a fork And won't allow a soul to talk Until he's carved the duck. |