PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B. — SUB-SECTION, PHARMACY. 137 



activity to the presence of ergotoxine in greater or less proportions. It 

 should be noted that, since ergotoxine has weak acid as well as weak 

 basic properties, and since its salts, moreover, form colloidal solutions 

 in water, its presence as an actively-conferring constituent in acidic 

 resins is easily explained. Barger and Dale published a table of 

 synonyms, indicating the importance of ergotoxine as the active 

 constituent of the various principles described up to that date. At 

 the same time they recognised, and, indeed, explicitly stated, that 

 certain features of the action of some of the most widely used extracts 

 of ergot could not be accounted for by the presence of ergotoxine. 

 The fluid extract of the U.S. P., being an acid alcoholic extract, contains, 

 indeed, a large proportion of the ergotoxine of the ergot from which it 

 is made, and doubtless owes to this a great part of its therapeutic value. 

 Edmunds and Hale recently arrived at the conclusion that the effect 

 of this extract «i the uterus runs parallel to its activity as determined 

 by the cock's comb test, which they rightly regard as a measure of its 

 ergotoxine value. On the other hand, such preparations as the 

 " extractum ergotse liquidum " of the British PkormacopcBia, which 

 has a great vogue among practitioners in Great Britain, usually contains 

 mere traces of ergotoxine. Yet this extract exhibits two definite 

 types of physiological action, which have been recommended by 

 different authorities as measures of its therapeutic value — it has a pressor 

 action, of the adrenine type, and it causes pronounced contraction of 

 the isolated uterine muscle. Barger and Dale proceeded to investigate 

 the nature of the substances responsible for these types of activity. 

 Shortly before this, Vahlen had announced the discovery in ergot of an 

 active principle Avith no toxic properties, but possessing a specific 

 stimulating action on the normal, co-ordinated contractions of the 

 pregnant uterus. To this principle he gave the name '" Clavin," and 

 ■was soon able to cite clinical evidence in favour of its activity. Barger 

 and Dale examined this preparation, and found it to be a mixture of 

 amino-acids and quite devoid of activity. Their statement as to its 

 ohemical nature was confirmed by Van Slyke, who separated it into 

 leucin, isoleucin, and valin, and determined the proportion of each 

 which was present. Several other observers (Cushny Kehrer, Cronyn, 

 and Henderson) had also found it inactive. Vahlen 's results are, 

 therefore, of interest only as evidence of the great difficulty in obtaining 

 and interpreting clinical evidence as to the effect of drugs on uterine 

 activity. It became necessary to look elsewhere for the active 

 constituents, other than ergotoxine, of which the existence was 

 •evident. For a long time no success was obtained, for the principles 

 in question could not be removed from ergot extracts by any of the 

 methods ordinarily employed for the isolation of alkaloids. It seemed 

 possible, however, that ergot, being a fungus, might resemble the 

 laacteria rather than the higher plants in its metabolic processes, and 



