the National Board of Health or having them sent out of the country? By the way, when they are exported, it should only be back to the place whence they came, for obvious reasons, though the present drug law from which this is taken does not compel this. In section 8, a drug must be "sold under or by a name,' or be "below the professed standard under which it is sold," in order to come under the definition of adulteration, while in food and drink it does not require the substances to be sold, except in the fourth specification, in order to make them subject to the definition. Of course, the articles should be liable to the charge of adulteration wherever found, no matter whether sold or not sold. And if the proposed law means this, as doubtless it does, why make the distinction between medicines and food?

In the seventh specification of this section a substance, to be considered as adulterated, must contain "any ingredient which may render such article injurious to the health of a person consuming it." This phrase "injurious to the health" is a grave difficulty. In the British law it is "hurtful," and the impossibility of proving an ingredient hurtful, especially when in small proportion, has caused many defeats. Who can prove that grape sugar in cane sugar is injurious to health? Yet it is an adulteration and a fraud.

The second proviso of this specification has this objectionable phrase repeated, preceded by another very large opening for the escape of defendants who have able counsel. The provisions of this act are not to "apply to mixtures or compounds recognized as ordinary articles of food, provided that the same are not injurious to health, and that the articles are distinctly labeled as a mixture (meaning as mixtures), stating the components of the mixture" (mixtures).

The cases wherein such provisions could be enforced against the efforts of any able lawyer opposing them would be few.

Section 11 directs that all the regulations and declarations of the National Board of Health made under this act shall be printed in the Statutes at Large. This is an excellent provision for placing such regulations, etc., where every one can have easy access to them, and this is doubtless the object of the section. Whether it will give to them the legal force of statutes depends probably upon the organic powers given by Congress to the National Board of Health. If they be printed with the statutes, yet have a doubtful statutory force, they may lead to much litigation in the interests of defendants.

These criticisms on the work of so many able men, now endorsed and supported by so able a lawyer as Senator Miller, are offered with diffidence and hesitation, but they are neither disrespectful nor crude, since they are derived from much experience, observation and thought on the subject of adulteration throughout many years. Two years ago the writer published a pamphlet embracing a proposed law upon this subject, which will be found as No. XIV. of the series of "Economic Monographs," published by G. P. Putnam's Sons. The law there proposed avoids, in great measure, the supposed defects of the Bill here alluded to, while it contains many prominent points omitted in the Bill. It also contains the British law (since amended)- a law which, in fullness and completeness of detail, contrasts very strongly with this Bill.

CHIAN TURPENTINE AGAIN.

In The Lancet of December 17, 1881, p. 1033, Professor John Clay, of Birmingham, returns to the subject of the treatment of cancer by Chian Turpentine. From this paper it may be judged that two years has moderated the author's enthusiasm, though it still retains for him the character of an enthusiast. He now, however, has many other elements in the treatment, and evidently manages his cases with such care and attention and general skill, that his results as now given might be expected from the treatment if the Chian Turpentine was omitted. One very important element in his treatment would, however, be left out with the turpentine. Like a number of other enthusiastically recommended cancer cures, this one has often brought hope to the hopeless, and they are probably all, thus far, but other names for hope to the hopeless, and their effect for a time, especially when administered by an enthusiast who can communicate his enthusiasm to his patients, is highly beneficial. Professor Clay's statements, however, still stand almost alone in regard to this agent, whilst those of a number of excellent observers and careful therapeutists have entirely failed to sustain them. Those who remember the careers of Missisquoi water and mud, and cundurango, and the much more numerous professional following that both these agents secured, can hardly fail to recognize the true character of Chian Turpentine, especially now that more modern and better therapeutics distrusts all so-called specifics.

THE USE OF SALICYLATES IN ACUTE

RHEUMATISM.

In The Lancet of December 17, 1881, p. 1,030, Dr. C. Hilton Fagge, of Guy's Hospital, has a very instructive analytical and statistical paper on this subject, which, from the tone of the paper and the character of the observer, deserves careful attention and will have much weight. Dr. Fagge concludes his remarks by saying that he was cautious, if not skeptical at first, "But where case after case occurred with scarcely a failure, he became satisfied that he had a most potent remedy in his hands. All further experience had strengthened this conviction in his mind, and he would now feel that he was accepting a grave responsibility if he were to withhold a drug which he believed to be so useful from any patient placed under his care, unless there were some good reason for doing so." The discussion of the subject before the Medical Society of London brought out much more testimony to the general value of Salicin and its derivatives in the treatment of Rheumatic Fever, and the discussion was not yet at an end.

OIL OF WINTERGREEN AS AN EFFECTIVE

SALICYLATE, IN RHEUMATISM.

An able chemist, namely, Mr. P. Casamajor, of Brooklyn, informs the writer of this paragraph, that arguing from a purely chemical position he expected to obtain better results in acute or subacute rheumatism, and perhaps in chronic rheumatism also, from the use of Oil of Gaultheria, or Wintergreen. This oil is mainly Methyl Salicylate, and was among the earliest sources of Salicylic Acid. Mr. Casamajor supposes that this salt of Salicylic Acid would be easily appropriated in the economy, and would prove more effective than other salicylates of more fixed character. Carrying out his ideas he had treated himself and several friends who had been subjected to rather sharp attacks of rheumatism with Oil of Wintergreen and with somewhat marked benefit in every case tried. He takes, and gives the oil in doses of ten drops dropped on sugar, and the sugar then mixed with a little water and swallowed about every two hours until the pain is relieved. This simple procedure is well worthy of extended trial and closer observation.

A NEW CINCHONA ALKALOID, FROM

CUPREA BARK.

The London Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions of Dec. 17th, p. 497, has two articles upon a new alkaloid found in the recent coppery colored Cinchona Bark which has come in large quantities from South America, and is much used by makers of Salts of Quinia. One paper is by Messrs. B. H. Paul and A. J. Cownley, and the other is by Mr. W. George Whiffen.

These papers concur in their description of an alkaloid not before known, but which is very much like quinia. The sulphate is very much like the Sulphate of Quinia, but some of the other salts resemble those of Cinchonidia. Its chief characteristic as stated by Mr. Whiffen is its action on polarized light. It rotates the polarized ray to the left more powerfully than Quinia, or than any of the alkaloids of Cinchona, and therefore he proposes to distinguish it as "ultra-quinine." It has not been separated in any considerable quantity as yet, and nothing seems to be known of its therapeutic value. From its apparent position in the scale of the Cinchona alkaloids, it should not be inferior to quinia.