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reports^), can be used successfully as a vermifuge. This is Artemisia 
herba-alba Asso. Now, as there is no lack of observations of santonin- 
poisoning in children, whilst cineol in comparison is harmless, it seems 
advisable to substitute cineol again for santonin. Of course, there is 
no objection to replace cineol by other essential oils or by sub- 
stances prepared therefrom provided these are found to have vermi- 
fuge properties and at the same time are harmless. The experience 
of veterinary surgeons, namely, shows that, for example, Herba tanaceti 
is also a vermifuge. This contains an alkaloid and an essential oil*^). 
A mixture of the two, in the form of an extract, has recently been 
placed on the market, and is well worth a trial. Oil of tansy con- 
tains, as its most important constituent, tanacetone (s. thujone). As 
shewn by the experiments by Jiirss, mentioned below, it is poisonous 
when administrated in large doses, and these must therefore be avoided. 
In how far small doses are capable of exerting a vermifuge action, is 
a question which needs to be settled. Spinola's worm-cakes, fre- 
quently used by farmers for sheep, contain a mixture of tansy and 
calamus -root in equal proportions. It is not yet known in how far 
calamus oil has a vermifuge action. In the United States and in Brazil 
a worm-seed oil is used, not without success, which is obtained from 
Chenopodium ambrosioides L. (Jesuit's tea), Chenopodiiun anthehninthicum L., 
and Chefiopodium suffroticosum W. The constituents of these oils should 
be submitted to a chemical and pharmacological test. In the United 
States, oil of chenopodium, which is there known as worm-seed oil, is 
included in the Pharmacopoeia. Against taenia^ bothriocephalus , and 
ankylostoma^ a mixture of substances is recommended, of which extract 
of fern and thymol are the two most important. Formerly it was 
stated that the only active constituent of extract of fern was filicic acid, 
or the mixture of substances sold in the trade as filicic acid. More 
than ten years ago I^) have already shown that filicic acid by itself, 
even in doses of one gram, does not act as a vermifuge in man, but 
only becomes capable of such action when dissolved in a small 
quantity of fatty oil and mixed with a little essential oil, — as is the 
case with the extract. I based my statements regarding the strength- 
ening of the action by the essential oil upon experiments made with 
essential oil of filix on lower animals of various kinds. Since, due to 
R. Boehm's merits, several butanones have been detected in fern, and 
have been recognised as active, F. Kraft ^) has recently designated 
^) M. Battandier, Journ. de PharQiacie et de Chimie I. 23 (1891), p. 380; 
see also the verbal report by Professor E. Grimal, Algiers. 
^) For a short examination of the oil by myself, see the Berichte d. deutsch. 
pharm. Ges. 39 (1902). 
^) Uber die wirksamen Bestandteile im Rhizoma filicis maris. Pharmac. Post 
1892, Dec. issue; and Sitz.-Ber. der Dorparter Naturforscherges. 1892, 167. 
4) Pharm. Ztg. 1903, p. 272. 
