182 ABSTEACTS: PHAKMACOLOGY 



reported appears to act much as does vanillin, depressed phosphate and 

 potash more than nitrate. In this respect again the influence of the 

 various harmful substances is different. 



The conclusion is drawn that different toxic substances produce 

 definite effects in their action on plants and that the effects are modi- 

 fied differently by the different fertilizer salts. M. X. Sullivan. 



AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.— Biochemical factors in soil. M. X. 

 Sullivan. Science, 33: 543. 1911. 



The soil is not an inert reservoir for plant food but is the seat of physi- 

 cal, chemical and vital actions, the biochemical factors being especially 

 prominent. Numerous bodies which occur in soils and arise either in 

 the metabolic activities of micro-organisms or are left in the soil after 

 the decomposition of the plant and animal debris and perhaps offer 

 also as a result of excretion from roots or from cell sloughing, play a 

 considerable role in soil fertility. Some of these substances are harmful 

 to plants, some beneficial. Fertilizers modify the physiological func- 

 tions of the micro-organisms by bringing about suitable conditions for 

 their development, in stimulating or retarding their digestion of inert 

 bodies, and in furthering their en zymotic functions. Soils per se have 

 oxidizing and catalyzing properties, while poor soils have these functions 

 in a much lessened degree. Oxidation in subsoils, which are of much 

 poorer productivity than surface soil, is usually slight. M. X. S. 



PHARMACOLOGY. — The yharmacopozial standard for desiccated thy- 

 roid glands. Reid Hunt and Atherton Seidell, Hygienic Labora- 

 tory, Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. American 

 Journal of Pharmacy, 83: 407-411 (Sept.) 1911. 



The parallelism between the iodine content and physiological activity 

 of thryoid having been established, the authors call attention to the 

 advantages of the method of Hunter (J. Biol. Chem., 7 : 321-349. 1910), 

 over the older Baumann method for the estimation of the organically 

 combined iodine of thyroid, and suggest the incorporation of the Hunter 

 method in the pharmacopoeial description of this drug. On the basis 

 of the analysis of a large number of commercial desiccated thyroid sam- 

 ples, a standard iodine content of 0.2 per cent, with a maximum varia- 

 tion of 0.03 per cent above or below this figure is recommended. The 

 limit for moisture is placed at 6 per cent, and that for ash at 5 per cent. 

 Attention is called to the improbability of the claim that some recently 

 prepared thyroid preparations contain thyroid iodine compound in a 

 super active form. A. S. 



