THE AU STEAL ASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
41 
and vomiting after food also disappears under the use of cocaine. A 3 per cent, 
solution used in a similar maimer has been recommended by Dr. G-rteffner for 
the treatment of nervous cough in hysterical women. The statements concerning 
the value of cocaine in sea-sickness are confirmed by Dr. A. J. Duffield ( Medical 
Times, 21st JNov., p. 709), who writes that twenty years ago he used coca leaves 
with success in the treatment of this complaint while on a return voyage from 
Peru. 
The use of various artificial colouring matters in the manufacture of wines, 
drinks, and other articles of food, which appears to be widely extended in 
France, has hitherto been condemned, on the ground that the physiological 
action of these bodies is not known, and that they may possess properties 
injurious to health. To determine whether or not this be the case, Messrs. 
Cazeneuve and R. Lepine have made a series of experiments upon man and 
animals. One of the bodies already examined from this point of view is known 
in French commerce under the name of rouge soluble (Comptes Eendus , ei., 
823). The result of the trials made with this colouring agent leads the authors 
to assert that it is absolutely free from any poisonous properties, and that it 
cannot be considered injurious to health in the small proportion in which it is 
used. This opinion appears to be confirmed by the fact that the workmen 
engaged in manufacturing the colour, and who are daily exposed to the inhalation 
of its dust, do not experience any ill effects. 
Examination of Essential Oils. — For the examination of certain essential 
oils, chiefly with the view to distinguish the “natural” products from artificial 
imitations, the author employs an aqueous solution of mercuric nitrate (10 per 
cent.). Four drops of the essential oil are dissolved in 2 c.c. of alcohol, and 
2 to 3 drops of the nitrate solution added. No reduction occurs with the 
essential oils of laurel (ol. laurocerasi) and bitter almonds. The greater number 
of oils, however, have a reducing action on the nitrate, and their presence in 
admixture with the above is indicated by the formation of a grey precipitate of 
metallic mercury. The artificial bitter almond water also precipitates the solution, 
and is thus distinguished from the natural. The following oils — viz., ol. cassiie 
cinn., succini, petrsc, linanthracis, vincse, vitis viniferse — do not readily reduce the 
nitrate, but their presence in bitter almond oil is indicated by the opalescence 
occasioned by diluting with alcohol (6 parts of sp. gr. 0*895). Mustard oil 
treated under the above conditions gives a slight reduction ; the artificial product* 
sold under this name were found, on the other hand, to reduce rapidly, giving 
a dark-grey precipitate. II. Hager, in the Pharmaceutical Journal and Tran- 
sactions. 
Cocaine, like many other valuable remedial agents, appears to be not 
altogether free from disadvantages. At a recent meeting of the Clinical Society 
of London ( British Medical Journal, p. 971, 21st Nov.) several of the members 
present expressed the opinion that cocaine, whether in solution or in the form 
of gelatine discs, had a tendency to cause panophthalmitis. It was also stated 
that Grafe had found chronic interstitial keratitis much more common since he 
had used cocaine. Mr. H. M'Hardy, who had experienced similar results from 
the use of this alkaloid, remarked that fifteen days appeared to he the longest 
time that it was safe to keep a solution of cocaine, and that since using quite 
fresh, solutions . of 8 per cent, he had had no had cases. Gelatine discs 
containing cocaine were found to be hygroscopic, which might account for 
chemical changes in the alkaloid, since in that state the discs' might afford a 
breeding ground for pathogenic organisms. Dr. Ziem, of Dantzic, has also 
communicated to the Allgemeine Zeitung (Ibid., p. 983) notes of a case in 
which two drops of 4 per cent, solution of cocaine applied to the eye of a man 
