N. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 529 



properties of the plant, and can, consequently, be used in 

 many cases to much better advantage. 6 B, December 22, 

 1875,1333. 



THEEAPEUTIC QUALITIES OF COD-LIVER OIL AND QUININE. 



The Paris Medical Journal commends a certain prepara- 

 tion of quinine and cod-liver oil as having excellent thera- 

 peutical virtues. The experiment had been frequently made 

 of dissolving quinine with cod-liver oil, but without success ; 

 subsequently the object was accomplished by combining the 

 alkaloid with oleic acid, and then dissolving this oleic acid 

 in a given quantity of cod-liver oil. The French preparation 

 of this substance is arranged to give five centigrammes 

 of quinine to each tablespoonful of the oil. 1 B, January 

 2,1876,206. 



CHEAP QUININE. 



It is reported that the extensive cinchona plantations in 

 British Sikhim have lately begun to furnish an efficient feb- 

 rifuge, sold at a cheap rate. The resident manager of the 

 plantation at Darjeeling writes to Dr. Hooker that they ex- 

 pect to collect about ninety tons of the dry bark during this 

 season ; that they are making it on the spot into a febrifuge 

 which is evidently quite as effectual as quinine. They are 

 making from forty to fifty pounds a week, and expect to in- 

 crease the quantity, and hope to sell this at about fifty cents 

 an ounce. 12 A^ January 6, 1876, 196. 



CHLORAL AND PICROTOXINE. 



Dr. Christian Brow^n has shown that the hydrate of chloral 

 is physiologically the antagonist of picrotoxine, when admin- 

 istered to hares and rabbits and guinea-pigs, and that life 

 may be saved, after a fatal dose of picrotoxine, by adminis- 

 tering the chloral within fifteen or twenty minutes of the tak- 

 ing of the other substance. This antagonism is subject to 

 two restrictions : first, when the dose of picrotoxine is large 

 enough to destroy life before the chloral has had time to act ; 

 and, second, when the dose is too great to be combated, ex- 

 cepting by a fatal dose of chloral. On the other hand, how- 

 ever, picrotoxine is only to a very limited degree the antag- 



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