— 115 — 
Hildebrandt^), with regard to its toxic character, places close to the 
extremely dangerous pulegone. And yet the would-be suicide came 
off scot-free. As to oil of wormwood, in an experimental examin- 
ation 2) made under my direction many years ago, I have had gathered 
together particulars of the severe attacks on the use of absinthe, which 
were made even at that time; but from the experiments on animals 
which we then made, I have not been able to come to a definite con- 
firmation of the justice of those attacks. But now, after having further 
examined this question for more than two decades, I am decidedly 
on the side of the opponents to absinthe. The same position is taken 
by the most recent investigator of the absinthe- question, S. D. Laloue^). 
The study of the effect of oil of calamus can only now be commenced, 
since Rud. Beckstroem^) has solved the chemical preliminary question 
of the composition of this oil. Of the substances interesting to us, 
which were thereby detected, I would enumerate eugenol, calameone, 
and asarone which hitherto had only been known as a constituent of 
the oils of Asariim europaeum and matico. These three substances may 
probably determine the toxic quality of calamus oil. 
Among the thirst -quenching and appetite - stimulating beverages, 
which, cooled in ice, are sold in summer in the United States very 
generally at the street-comers, and also by chemists, not a few contain 
safrol, which belongs to the essential oils. We pharmacologists cannot 
caution sufficiently strongly against the possible introduction of this 
mischief in Europe, for safrol, even greatly diluted, is a powerful and 
dangerous irritant for the kidneys, which may no doubt be prescribed 
medicinally, but should never be taken ad libiium as a condiment. For 
the same reason I am bound, — though otherwise a friend of colonial 
enterprise — to reject the liqueur from massoy-bark, which is intro- 
duced by some colonial firms, as it also contains safrol. 
It will be readily understood that the group of stomachic liqueurs 
contains numerous proprietary preparations possessing (according to the 
advertisements) some wonderful action. Of these I mention as an example 
Kiesow's Essence of Life, which, according to G. A rends ^), contains, in 
addition to other substances, five essential oils possessing stomachic qualities. 
In the foregoing paragraphs, two effects of essential oils on the 
intestinal canal have not yet been mentioned, viz., the one as an 
addition to cholera- drops, and the other as an addition to remedies 
for worms. Both will be treated in subsequent groups. 
^) Ztschr. f. physiol. Chem. 36 (1902), 441, 452. 
-) C. Fr. Bohm, Uber die Wirkungen des atherischen Absintholes. Thesis, 
Halle o./S. 1879. 
3) Contribution a I'etude de 1' essence d'absinthe etc. Paris, 1902. 
^) Uber die Bestandteile des Kalmusoles. Thesis, Basle, 1902. 
^) Neue Arzneimittel u. pharmaz. Spezialitaten (Berlin 1903) p. 254. 
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