52 Report of Schimmel $ Co. 1921. 



Chemical Preparations and Drugs. 



Benzyl Alcohol. — According to D. I. Macht 1 ), benzyl alcohol, already recommended 

 as a local anaesthetic 2 ), is also a good remedy against toothache. The alcohol is said 

 to remove the pain at once, when dropped on cotton wool and placed in the hollow 

 tooth, alone or mixed with chloroform. The remedy is considered less poisonous than 

 other anaesthetics and therefore valuable. 



Benzyl benzoate has for some time been applied in cases of spasms of the plain 

 muscular fibre 3 ). Macht and Litzenburg*), as well as Cheinisse 5 ), recommend it in 

 cases of peristaltic inflammation of the intestines, in dysentery and other enteritis, in 

 post-operative spasms of the intestines, in spasmic obstipation, in colic of the gall 

 and kidneys and spasms of the bladder. 



Treatment with benzyl benzoate was successful with dysmenorrhoea in 81 per cent, 

 of the cases, with bronchial asthma and also with croup in most instances. 



In general five to forty drops of 20 per cent, alcoholic solution are applied in 

 water perorally. In addition of 1 to 5 per cent, of benzaldehyde is said to increase 

 the effect in cases of croup. 



T. E. Mc Murray 6 ) also obtained good and rapid success with benzyl benzoate without 

 observing any deleterious consequences. D. I. Macht 7 ) cured obstinate cases of hiccough 

 with the ester, when other external and internal remedies had failed. He believes that 

 benzyl benzoate is valuable also for the diagnosis, because it admits of drawing a 

 distinction between hiccough of purely-central and hiccough of more peripheric origin. 

 Since this remedy acts in the main peripherally upon the plain muscles, it should be 

 especially effective in dealing with cases of hiccough of peripheral origin. Twenty to 

 forty drops of an alcoholic solution should be given to the patient in water or in milk. 

 The use of benzyl benzoate-capsules is not advisable. Macht reports further that the 

 remedy also expands the blood vessels and does not attack the heart; angina pectoris 

 was treated with success. 



According to experiments which E. A. Heller and E. Steinfield 8 ) had been making 

 with rabbits, benzyl benzoate has, by contrast to benzene, no toxic effect on leucocytes. 



Benzaldehyde. — The method for the determination of the chlorine contents 

 in benzaldehydes, which we mentioned in last year's Report 9 ), has meanwhile been 

 perfected, and the research has been brought to a certain conclusion. 



We conducted the combustion originally in a large glass flask which was being 

 fed with oxygen. Having in further experiments succeded in constructing a lamp in 



!) Americ. Journ. Pharm. 93 (1921), 52. — 2 ) Cf. Report 1919, 66. — 3 ) Therap. HalVmonatsh. U 

 (1920), 651. — 4 ) Journ. Americ. Med. Assoc. 73 (1919). — 6 ) Presse medicale 1920, 717. — 6 ) New York 

 Med. Journ., 24. VIII. 1920, p. 122. From Americ. Journ. Pharm. 92 (1920), 926. — 7 ) Med. Record, 24. VII. 

 1920, p. 146. From Merck's Report 30 (1920), 7. — 8 ) New York med. Journ., 31. VII. 1920, p. 160; from 

 Americ. Journ. Pharm. 92 (1920), 916. — 9 ) Report 1920, 64. 



