25 
exercise the greatest care to cleanse the crude drug thor- 
oughly and to percolate it in such a manner as to preserve 
its active principles. Because of the impossibility of select- 
ing and accurately separating any definite active principle, 
a physiological assay is the only one suitable for deter- 
mining the value of ergot and its preparations. The estima- 
tion of ergot according to the weight of the ergotinic or 
sclerotic acid it contains is fallacious; this method we dis- 
carded long ago, having learned that ergotinic acid is not 
the desirable active principle of the drug, but one which 
exerts a dangerously depressing influence upon the nerve 
centers without producing any hemostatic effect. We test 
our ergot preparations on cocks, the combs of which are 
peculiarly susceptible to an active product; the adminis- 
tration of appropriate doses of such a product is followed 
by characteristic blackening or blanching of the comb and 
wattles, due to the astringent effect of the ergot upon 
unstriated muscle fibre, particularly that surrounding the 
arterioles, 
GELSEMIUM. 
Also known as Yellow Jessamine. 7 
The dried rhizome and roots of Gelsemium sempervirens 
(Linne) are used. _ : 
Contains two alkaloids, cul and erlang, and ee 
crystalline substance, oe acid. | : 
Nervine; antispasmo ra 
