code, so that now the vote by counties stands, after a year's discussion and deliberation, about 34 or 35 against the new code, to 3 or 4 in favor of it, or of no code at all. PREPARATIONS OF ACONITE. Through the kindness of Dr. Fred. Hoffmann, of New York, the following information is offered in support of the position taken at page 135 of this volume in regard to the dangerous variability of the aconitia which is used in medicine. Dr. Hoffmann sends the Pharmaceutishe Zeitung of Bunzlau and Berlin for February 8th and 11th, 1882, from which the writer's assistant, Miss M. O. Glover, translates the following abstract of a paper by Prof. Th. Husemann, of Göttingen: In April 1880, Dr. Meyer of Winschoten, died from a dose of about 3 or 4 millegrammes of aconitin nitrate, the preparation of Petit of Paris having been substituted for that of Friedlander, which was intended to be used. The aconitin nitrate of Petit was in white hard crystals soluble with difficulty in cold water. That of Friedlander was a hard gumlike mass, grayish-white in color and easily soluble in cold water. The chemists, Huizinga and Plugge, who examined the body of Dr. Meyer were unable to prove the presence of aconitin conclusively, either by chemical reagents or by the physiological test on pigeons. The aconitins of different makers all differ in strength, and it is even unsafe to assume,-as has been done,--that the "Aconitinum Germanicum" is always the same. The author of the paper thought at first that the poisoning occurred from the aconitin nitrate of Duquesnel, but found his mistake, and judges from the experiments of Anrep and of Plugge that the preparation of Petit is weaker than that of Duquesnel, though that of Petit was at least 8 times stronger than that of Merck, while that of Merck was 20 to 30 times stronger than that of Friedlander. It is also stated by the author of the paper, on the authority of Dragendorff, that the same method of preparation being used, a more or less active preparation will be obtained from the longer or shorter exposure to the action of the base used in the precipitation. Gubler, in 1872, in his therapeutical commentary on the "Codex Medicamentarius," says that pharmaceutical preparations properly made from the aconitum napellus are much more uniform in strength than aconitin or its salts, and that as the former are used in larger quantities there is a greater difference between the medicinal and the fatal dose. TREATMENT OF TAPE-WORM. (SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE.) The writer has had many suggestions and inquiries in regard to the note on this subject published at page 172 of the last number of this journal, showing that many readers had mistaken the scope of the note. It was by no means intended to be an exhaustive treatise on the subject, nor to lead to the inference that the writer was capable of treating the subject fully, but it aimed solely at making one or two points in the treatment of obstinate cases only, and of tænia solium only. The writer was well aware that a considerable proportion of these are easily dislodged; and that the unarmed variety is commonly as easily dislodged as lumbricoides are, often needing only an active purgative of any kind, but he also knew that the armed variety of tænia was occasionally very difficult to dislodge, and that this difficulty was at least sometimes due rather to the location of the attachment of the head than to the choice of some new fashioned parasiticide. The object was simply to say that many cures of obstinate cases had been effected in the way pointed out. THE PHARMACOPOEIA OF 1880. The Revision of 1880 issued in November last is of such primary importance to the objects and interests of these pages that in future they will be mainly occupied in trying to give a practical review and commentary upon it. However imperfect this may be, and whether ever completed or not, it may still prove useful in embodying the experience and information of the writer upon the subjects discussed so far as it may go. Each person who may wish to avail himself properly of what may be here offered, should of course have a copy of the book and refer to it as each subject or each point comes under discussion, for the text will be quoted only so far as it is used. As a whole, it must first be said--and can hardly be said with too much emphasis that, it seems to be by far the best Pharmacopoeia of the time, and this because it is the result of more labor and research than any other; and this by hands as skillful as those of any other. In its general complexion and tone it is pharmaceutical rather than therapeutical. That is, while its general tendency and tone is to both polypharmacy and polytherapy, its greatest redundancy is in its pharmacy; and this is not at all to be wondered at from the constitution of the Committee of Revision, and from the fact that the pharmacists did almost all the work. While the committee was divided as equally as a committee of twenty-five could be, being composed of thirteen pharmacists and twelve physicians, yet of the physicians in it who were actively engaged in the practice of medicine, or ever had been prominent as therapeutists, the number was small. On the other hand, most of the pharmacists were not only active and able, but were prominent leaders in their branch of the art of medicine. But the prevailing drift of the time seems to be for the medical profession to turn over its most valuable and most important practical interest to pharmacy, and that pharmacy as a trade takes no more advantage of this unsafe and unwise drift, is highly creditable to the leaders of that branch of medicine. That twenty-five men could be found of such ability, who could and would devote so much individual time and labor and skill to such a work; and that one of the twenty-five could be selected as chairman who would harmonize so much individuality with such tact and skill, and at the expense of so much clerical labor is, to say the least, very fortunate for all the interests involved and very remarkable. While the whole nation is indebted to this committee for this successful work, the committee owes a very large proportion of the success to its chairman. The "Abstract of the Proceedings" of the Convention from page xv. to page xxv. must be carefully read in order to understand some binding instructions to the committee, which have been faithfully carried out. In carrying out some points of these instructions the committee has already been adversely criticised when the criticism should have been directed to the Convention in the adoption. of the plan upon which the revision was to be based. For example, the method of expressing the quantities by their relations to each other, instead of by a confused arbitrary mixture of weights and measures, has already been pretty severely criticised and charged to the Committee of Revision, when it was directed by the National Convention. At the time of the Convention of 1870, this substitution of parts by weight for arbitrary weights and measures had been discussed for about ten years, and had been adopted by one or more pharmacopoeias, and that Convention then directed its Committee of Revision to adopt the method. The committee, however, did not adopt it, and thus the advantages of it were lost for ten years. The Convention of 1880 again ordered its committee to make this change, and this committee, for its greater fidelity to the instructions of the superior body, is now being blamed for perhaps the most laborious and most difficult part of its duty. And this, too, when by common accord the change is one of the greatest of the many improvements of the revision of 1880. Had it been made twenty years ago, as it should have been,—or even ten years ago, as directed by the Convention of 1870,-the whole community in interest would have by this time become sufficiently accustomed to it to realize its advantages. Next follows the preface, in which the committee explains in general terms how it carried out the instructions of the convention, in the changes of contents and arrangement of the work. Here will be found the rules adopted for the use of synonyms, cross-references, nomenclature, etc. One change noted here on page xxx, and not noticed elsewhere, is the general change in the strength of the Fluid Extracts. These from having previously represented the drugs from which they were made in the proportion of minim for grain, are now about five per cent. weaker, the minim representing about ninety-five hundreths of a grain. This is so slight a change, that when once fully known and recognized, it is not very important, since fluid extracts made of this strength from drugs fully up to the officinal standard will be quite as strong as those made from the average drugs of the common market by the old standard. This change could not be very well avoided and have the formulas as uniform and symmetrical as they are. The change in strength depends upon the difference between the gramme and the cubic centimeter in the adoption of the metric system, to replace the 480 grain troy ounce, and the 480 minim fluidounce. Yet the older and better standard could have been more nearly approximated and the metric system be still used if 100 grammes of drug had been made to yield 95 cubic centimeters of fluid extract. The Revision of 1870 contained 970 titles. The present revision, 997, or only 27 more than the old. The titles dismissed from the old, number 229, and those added, 256; difference, 27. The pharmaceutical preparations dismissed are 106, and those added are 150; difference, 44, this difference being made up mainly of 33 fluid extracts more than before, and the new class of abstracts 11 in number; 11 new syrups and 16 more tinctures. A few of the tables directed by the Convention could not be prepared in time, and the committee expect to give them in a supplement, thus indicating that a supplement is in contemplation. Next follow the "Preliminary Notices." Here the old and convenient definitions for fineness of powders are usefully elaborated, so that the numbers can be used instead of the previous less definite expressions. The only indefinite expression here is found in the last sentence, which is as follows: When a substance is directed to be in powder of a limited degree of fineness, as specified, by the number of meshes to the linear inch in the sieve, not more than a small proportion of the powder should be able to pass through a sieve having ten meshes more to the linear inch.-U. S. P., 1880, page xxxv. The " not more than a small proportion" is generally about onefourth part. The Notice on Percolation is a definite and clear description of the process as generally applicable to pharmacopoeial uses, and a figure of the apparatus and more detailed description of the process will be found in a paper published by the writer, in the Proceedings of the Amer. Pharm. Asso. for 1878, at page 708-the figure at page 739. The text of the Notice does not agree with the process as given in the body of the work exactly, for, under fluid extracts the old and inferior plan of stopping the outlet of the percolator with a cork is directed. Since without the rubber tube as described in the Notice, the rate of percolation cannot be properly controlled, it is a mistake to omit it from the text of the Pharmacopoeia, because the process given there is objectionable, and pharmacists may not always refer to the Preliminary Notices for the better one. At the end of this notice the following sentence occurs: Modification of the above Process. Authority is given to employ, in the case of fluid extracts, where it may be applicable, the process of repercolation, without change of the initial menstruum. The process of repercolation to which allusion is here made, is described in detail in the Proceedings of The Amer. Pharm. Asso. for 1878, at pages 708 et seq., and with due deference to the judgment and |