64 THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 



extracted active principles for which he claims "convenience of adminis- 

 tration, absolute exactness of the dose administered, unchangeability, 

 invariability thru evaporation and freedom from objectionable and irri- 

 tating inert material, and more rapid absorption." 



He puts the question "if aconitine does not represent the full activ- 

 ity of the aconite . . . then to what purpose is the standardizing for 

 aconite?" He likewise quotes pilocarpus containing the antagonistic 

 alkaloids pilocarpine and jaberine in which the U. S. P. directs the 

 determination of the amount of pilocarpine but takes no account of 

 the jaberine. Mention is likewise made of the deterioraton of extracts 

 and the unworkable and unreliable methods of assay for aconite root, 

 it's fluid extract, the fluid extract of ipecac and physostigma and 

 conium. 



The writer asserts "when the active principle does not represent 

 the drug in every respect, standardizing of one active principle is worse 

 than useless, because it gives no information as to the absolute or 

 relative amount of the other active principles and does not provide for 

 the removal of antagonistic principles. Standardization is unreliable, 

 unscientific and imperfect." 



Prof. H. H. Rushy of the New York College of Pharmacy replies 

 in the same issue of the Circular. He tabulates the substances into 

 three classes: 



1. Substances not amenable to assay, a) because the active con- 

 stituent is unknown; b) because the active constituents are complex; 

 c) because there are active constituents which act antagonistic to the 



useful ones. 



2. Substances for which the assay processes at present authorized 



are unsatisfactory. 



3. Substances for which the assay processes are reliable. 

 Regarding i. a) Selection by color, taste, and smell is quite as much 



standardization in its inherent nature as that by cheniical assay, the 

 method being merely less exact. — If any of the constituents upon 

 which the properties depend were determined chemically the operator 

 would be merely pursuing a somewhat more accurate method than 

 those mentioned which are resorted to by every one who purchases 

 drugs. In class i. c) the antagonistic constituents must be separately 

 estimated. It is necessary ... to consider how great is the difficulty 

 of doing this and this requires a comparison between the work of the 



