Literary Notices. xiii 



Animal Extracts as Nerve Stimulants.' 



For a series of years Dr. Hammond has been experimenting with 

 various extractives derived from normal tissues and intended to be 

 injected into the circulation in order to supply the place of defective 

 secretion or to correct imperfect nutrition or to restore the ravages of 

 w^aste and time. Although the idea of treating certain diseases by 

 means of a diet composed of animal tissues of the sort which 

 happened to be impaired has been suggested [The Japanese practice 

 has long embodied this idea. — Ed.] this procedure was rendered 

 ineffectual by the results of digestion which reduced the compounds 

 to a more elementary state. The author states that the difficulties 

 of preparing fresh extracts are so great as to render this process 

 impracticable, especially as the use of them is attended with great 

 risk of blood poisoning or abcess-formation. Among the extracts 

 produced is cerebrine which is prepared as follows : (See New England 

 Monthly, p. 264-266.) "The whole brain of the ox, after being thor- 

 oughly washed in water acidulated with boric acid, is cut into small 

 pieces in a mincing machine. To one one thousand grammes of this 

 substance placed in a wide mouthed glass stoppered bottle, I add 

 three thousand cubic centimetres of a mixture consisting of one 

 thousand cubic centimetres each of a saturated solution of boric acid 

 is distilled water, pure glycerine and absolute alcohol. This is allowed 

 to stand in a cool place for, at least, six months, being well shaken or 

 stirred two or three times a day. At the end of this time it is thrown 

 upon a porous stone filter, through which it percolates very slowly, re- 

 quiring about two weeks for entirely passing through. The residue 

 remaining upon the filter is then enclosed in several layers of aseptic 

 gauze, and subjected to a pressure of over a thousand pounds, the 

 exudate being allowed to fall upon the filter and mixed with a suffi- 

 cient quantity of the filtrate to cover it. When it has entirely filtered 

 it is thoroughly mixed with the first filiate and the process is 

 complete. 



During the whole of this manipulation the most rigid antiseptic 

 precautions are taken. The vessels and instruments required are 

 kept in boiling water for several minutes and are then washed with 

 a saturated solution of boric acid. Bacteria do not form in this mix- 



'Wm. a. Ham.mond. On Certain Animal Extracts — Their Mode of 

 Preparation ; Physiological and Therapeutical effects. A lecture delivered 

 at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School, Jan. 16, 1893. ^^"^ England 

 Medical Monthly, XII., 6. 



