Chemical and Physical Papers. 101 



By deterioration is meant, first, a deviation from the professed 

 standard. 



The professed standard is regarded as that condition represented 

 by the preparation when it is freshly prepared. Such deviation 

 from the professed standard as above referred to may be determined 

 by: 



{a) Microscopical examination. If a medicinal liquid shall be 

 found by microscopical examination to have become so decomposed 

 that bacterial germs and germs of decomposition are found therein, 

 it shall be considered deteriorated. 



{b) Chemical examination. If by chemical examination any of 

 the professed ingredients, such as pepsin, pancreatin, or any of the 

 other ferments, be found absolutely inactive, or if a cocoa prepara- 

 tion give no reaction, showing the absence of the alkaloid, etc., such 

 preparation shall be considered deteriorated. 



(c) Macroscopical, etc. If a preparation differ in appearance 

 materially from that freshly prepared. If, for example, there have 

 developed a precipitate evidently through aging of a liquid, or if it 

 should from odor, taste or other physical tests show evidence of 

 impairment or decomposition, any of these conditions shall be taken 

 as ground for deeming the article deteriorated. /Any deteriorated 

 drug products offered for sale shall be liable to the application of 

 regulation ,30 of the food and drugs law. 



THE LACTOSE-BILE TEST FOR THE COLON BACILLUS. 



By W. B. Wilson, Ottawa University, Ottawa. 



'T^HE discovery of Bacillus coli in 1885 by Escherich, followed 

 ^ by the proof that this micro-organism is a normal inhabitant 

 of the intestines of mammals, especially of man, has led bacterio- 

 scopists to pay special attention to its isolation. Since B. coli is 

 always found in sewage and polluted water, and since it is compara- 

 tively easy of detection, this germ is taken as a most valuable in- 

 dex of the sanitary condition of potable waters. 



In presumptive tests, the common practice has been to employ 

 a dextrose broth made by adding two per cent, of dextrose to the 

 common French bouillon in the ordinary fermentative tube. The 

 bacterium attacks the dextrose, liberating carbon dioxid and hydro- 

 gen, which is taken as indicative of the presence of B. coli, or at 

 any rate a sugar-loving, gas-forming bacterium. 



Unfortunately this test is not always reliable, especially when 

 negative results are obtained owing to the interference of other 



