— 114 — 



Peru Balsam. As usual there is very little new to report concerning 

 this article. Thanks to the clever manipulation of the market on the part 

 of the Hamburg firms which control the imports, the prices have been 

 maintained at their previous level, and at the moment from cM 16.— to 

 c4i 16.50 per kilo has to be paid for balsam of unimpeachable quality 

 in the first hand. In spite of this, the price-cutting in so-called "German 

 Pharmacopoeia V- quality" continues unchecked! It remains a truism that 

 it is impossible to forecast the future of the article, for all information 

 from the district of collection is deftly suppressed; we have some suspicion, 

 however, that no lower prices are to be expected for some time to come. 



Among the German Pharmacopoeia (V) tests for Peru balsam is one 

 for fatty oils, in which it is laid down that 1 g. Peru balsam must dissolve 

 clearly in a solution of 3 g. chloral hydrate in 2 g. water. According to 

 Stocker 1 ), however, unquestionably pure balsams do not always give an 

 entirely clear solution in the proportions prescribed by the Pharmacopoeia- 

 test, and it is therefore preferable to use 3,5 g. chloral hydrate instead of 

 the 3 g. there demanded. G. Fromme 2 ) has observed that in the case of 

 pure balsams this turbidity ensues when the chloral hydrate is not quite 

 dry, the water which is present in the last-named substance preventing a 

 clear solution. Moreover, it happens sometimes that the solution is rendered 

 turbid by mechanical impurities, and Fromme therefore recommends that 

 when the balsam is not quite pale it should be filtered before the test 

 is applied; also that only absolutely dry chloral hydrate, which has been 

 kept in a lime-box, should be employed. 



Pollantin. The summer which is now drawing to a close has been 

 remarkable as a season of abnormal drought, which set in early, and 

 which has made it a period of serious suffering for persons subject to 

 hay-fever. Hence our hay-fever serum pollantin has experienced a brisk 

 demand, considerably surpassing that of the previous year. 



This season we have supplied a few hay-fever patients experiment- 

 ally with a new pollantin-preparation known as "pollantin ointment", and 

 judging from the reports which have reached us, this preparation has 

 been very well received, and has fully justified expectations. As a result 

 of the success of this experiment we intend to place the ointment upon 

 the market in the coming spring, and to publish particulars of the remedy 

 in our Report of April 1912. We also hope then to be able to report 

 the result of successful experiments made in combatting the troublesome 

 complaint of hay fever-asthma, with which so many patients are afflicted 

 towards the end of the hay-fever season. 



We beg to inform our business friends, especially the chemists among 

 them, that we are prepared to exchange old tins of liquid Pollantin bearing 



*) Apotheker Ztg. 26 (1911), 283. 



2 ) Quoted from the Annual Report of Caesar $ Loretz in Halle o. S., end of August 1911, 14. 



