6 THE JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 



or glycerin, after several days' treatment with copper acetate, an emerald - 

 green color appears. Hanstein's aniline violet stains resins blue. 



(6) Calcium phosphate and oxalate. 



Test does not exclude salts of other bases, but these rarely occur in 

 plants. 



(7) Volatile oils. 



in sections not previously treated with alcohol or glycerin, these stain 

 red in alkanet tincture. Distinguished from resins by copper acetate re- 

 action (see 5 above). 



(8) Fatty nils. 



Treat section with cone, sulphuric acid and oil drops collect, becoming 

 larger and more conspicuous. 



(9) Gums. 



Usually swell in water. Not colored blue by iodine and sulphuric acid. 

 [(10) Trammer's reagent. 



A moderately thick section is placed for from two to ten minutes in a 

 cone, solution of copper sulphate. Surface then quickly rinsed off with 

 distilled water: section then transferred to a boiling mixture of equal 

 parts bv weight of water and KOH. | 



Digitalis and the Heart Muscle. — The effect of the prolonged use of 

 digitalis on the heart muscle is discussed by Dr. 11. A. Hare in the Thera- 

 peutic Gazette, for December, 1897, page 800, having been determined by 

 means of microscopical examinations and measurements by Dr. W. M. L. 

 Coplin, Professor of Pathology in the Jefferson Medical College. A litter 

 of ten pigs, two months old, was procured and carefully assorted as to sex, 

 weight, etc., live of them being treated with normal liquid digitalis, the 

 others cared for in all respects similarly, except that the digitalis was 

 omitted. The average dose of 2m. was given twice daily for a month, and 

 was then regularly increased monthly until, after three months, 10m. was 

 given twice daily. This, according to weight ratio, was equal to about 80m. 

 a day for a man, but no ill effects resulted from the large dose. After four 

 and one-half months the digitalis pigs were found to weigh about four 

 pounds each more than the others, having weighed the same at the com- 

 mencement of the experiment. Their hearts weighed a little more than half 

 an ounce each above those of the others. The ventricular walls of these 

 hearts were reported by Dr. Coplin as being much thicker, uniformly firmer 

 ami cutting with more resistance. The measurement of many muscular 

 fihres showed an average diameter of .02nim. in favor of the digitalis hearts, 

 this being ;1 ii increase of from 1-10 to !-:> in their thickness. 



