December 3, 1914] 



NATURE 



365 



and very seldom does Mr. Priestley reveal the 

 result of their scientific work during- the first 

 winter : during the second, of course, little could 

 be accomplished. But the interest of the volume 

 lies in its being a full account of how six men 

 lived through an antarctic winter practically on 

 what land and sea produce, and so proved that 

 this can be done with comparative safety. That 

 is the importance of Mr. Priestley's book, and 

 as such, it should be studied carefully by every 

 future explorer in polar regions. The author has 

 been careful to record every expedient and make- 

 shift he and his comrades found useful in their 

 long struggle against adverse circumstances, and 

 it is all these trifling details that give great value 



only so; he often mulcts the public heavily for 

 the privilege. 



This is the conclusion forced upon the reader 

 by a perusal of the Report of the Select Committee 

 appointed to inquire into the question of the sale 

 of patent and proprietary medicines. The 

 anomalies and curiosities of the law and practice 

 concerning these commodities are, the Committee 

 finds, "numerous and remarkable," but as they 

 are not specially pertinent to these columns, the 

 interested reader is referred to the Report itself 

 for examples. 



The medicines in question differ widely in char- 

 acter. "At one end of the scale is the valuable 

 scientific preparation; at the other is the mere 



v'*^ 



Fig. 2. — Ice bjulders hurled up the beach by a heavy swell. From "Antarctic Adventure.' 



to the book. The work is well illustrated and 

 contains three maps. 



R. X. R. B. 



SECRET REMEDIES. 



J T will scarcely be questioned that the freedom 

 -*- allowed to quackery in this country is un- 

 reasonable. To estimate properly the effect of 

 drugs on the progress of disease in the human 

 body is one of the most difficult of tasks, even 

 for highly trained observers ; yet any person 

 vending alleged remedies is permitted to assert 

 ;he efficacy of his nostrums in the cure of ail- 

 ments, and to use the public as corpus vile for 

 them, practically without let or hindrance. Not 



XO. 2353, VOL. 94] 



vulgar swindle." They are classified by the 

 Committee as follows : — ■ 



Class A: Non-Secret. — (i) Proprietary prepara- 

 tions consisting of genuine drugs, synthesised or 

 extracted by skilled chemists and tested by 

 therapeutists. Examples are aspirin, adrenaline, 

 and urotropine. (2) Remedies which owe their 

 value to skilful combination, such as mixtures of 

 bismuth salts with pepsine. (3) Known drugs, 

 with the formula disclosed, but mixed for con- 

 venience with inert substances the nature of which 

 is a trade secret — e.g., "tabloids." 



It is considered that, with some possible excep- 

 tions, there is nothing in this class which calls 

 for interference in the public interest. 



Class B: Secret. — (i) Simple household rem- 



