234 
THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
work in our laboratories and drug stores— our drachm exactly equal to tlie 
weight of a fluid drachm, and the grain equal to the weight of a minim of 
water at the same temperature. If, in addition, we should change the subdivision 
of the drachm and fluid drachm, so that one drachm should be 64 instead of 
60 grains, and a fluid drachm 64 instead of 60 minims, the system would be 
perfect. We would then have : — 
1 U.S. apothecaries’ ounce = 1 U.S. apothecaries’ fluid ounce. 
1 D.S. „ drachm = 1 U.S. „ fluid drachm. 
1 LT.S. „ grain = 1 U.S. „ minim. 
Also, 
64 grains = 1 drachm ; 8 drachms = 1 ounce. 
And 
64 minims = 1 fluid ounce ; 8 fluid drachms = 1 fluid ounce. 
The ounces would be divisible into halves, quarters, and eighths, expressed in 
drachms without fractions ; and into 16ths, 32nds, 64ths, &c., expressed in grains 
or minims without fractions ; and the drachms would be divisible into halves, 
quarters, 8ths, 16ths, 32nds, and 64-ths, expressed in whole grains or minims. 
Disinfection by Heat. — The j Pharmaceutical Journal gives the results of an 
elaborate investigation lately carried out by Dr. Parsons in conjunction with Dr. 
Klein, at the instance of the Local Government Hoard. The results of the experi- 
ments with steam at 212° F. were conclusive as to its destructive power upon all the 
contagia submitted to its action, and only in one instance was there room for 
suspicion that the disinfection was not complete, when the highly-resistant 
anthrax spores were exposed to steam for five minutes only. The general 
conclusions as to the practical utility of disinfection by heat are summed up 
in the report as follows : — For washable articles which will stand boiling in 
water no other procedure is necessary, due care being taken that infection is 
not communicated in the removal of the articles. The articles for which a 
more technical “ disinfection ” by heat is required are such as will not bear 
washing in boiling water, such as blankets, rugs, carpets, cloth clothes, pillows, 
beds, mattresses, furs and dresses. Articles of furniture with stuffed seats may 
also require disinfection, as well as rags coming from places where epidemic 
disease prevails. In such cases the application of steam is the most effectual. 
Letters may be treated in the same way, provided they are not fastened 
with sealing wax. In all cases where steam is used precautions must be taken 
against undue wetting of the articles to be disinfected by condensation of the 
steam. Leather articles are at once destroyed by the application of steam, and 
consequently their disinfection must be effected by careful exposure to dry 
heat. 
Pilocaepine IN Toothache. — Mr. A. P. Kurzakoff, according to the 
Medical Press, states that hypodermic injections of pilocarpine will relieve 
toothache. A solution of two grains of the salt in half an ounce of dis- 
tilled water was used, the injection being made into the temporal region on 
the side of the odontologia. In two of the cases one-eighth, and in a third case 
one-quarter of a grain of the salt was injected. In all the cases pain disappeared 
permanently in about an hour after the injection ; about the same time salivation 
and perspiration (caused by the drug) also ceased. In one of the cases, in that 
of a man, set. 46, with rheumatic periodontitis associated with agonising earache, the 
injections (of a quarter of a grain) produced profuse vomiting, witli ejanosis 
general weakness, and drowsiness, all of which symptoms disappeared in about an 
hour and a half after taking 20 drops of tincture of valerian. The author thinks 
that this simple plan of treatment fully deserves a further and more extensive 
trial. 
