THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
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successfully used in surgical practice, and are available in pharmacy as well. 
As between salicylic and boric acids, the latter is now considered the best in 
collyna. It is much more soothing, notwithstanding the fact that it requires 
nearly 40 times the amount to do the same work. All who have tried the 
two upon their conjunctivas never hesitate in giving the preference to boric 
acid. Dr. Squibb now prefers it to everything else, and thinks that a better 
article for the purpose is unnecessary. Certainly its almost negative medical 
qualities would seem to commend it here. It is soothing to inflamed tissues, 
and is not likely to be physiologically contra-indicated in many cases. The 
writer's choice, however, after a trial of many kinds, is benzoic acid. Applied 
to the eyes in solutions of more than double the strength necessary to protect, 
it does not produce the least irritation. One grain has about the same 
antiseptic power as a dram of boric acid. In fruit juices the flavour is not 
in the least impaired by it, and in alkaloidal solutions no nauseous taste is 
super-imposed on that of the active ingredient. Like all others it is sometimes 
contra-indicated, but less frequently than salicylic acid, and no oftener than 
boric. It is excreted as hippuric acid, a normal constituent of urine, thus 
indicating that it adds force to the body, and not like salicylic acid, stealing 
force away by being excreted as salicyluric acid — a combination of itself and 
glycol. 
Kava as a Local Anjesthetic.— Lewin ( Deutsche Medizinal-Zeitung , 1st 
February, 1886) reports the results of additional personal experiments with this 
new narcotic, the anaesthetic properties of which are singularly like those of 
cocaine. He found that six or seven minims of a solution of kava, injected 
beneath the skin, produced complete loss of sensibility in the surrounding area, 
which did not pass off for five days. The anaesthesia was so extreme that 
even strong induced currents failed to produce more than a slight prickling 
sensation. When a small quantity of the resin was placed on the tip of the 
tongue the bitterest drug could not be tasted. — N.Y. Med. Jour., 8th May, 1886. 
Eczema, according to Dr. Wyss ( Noav . Rem., 15th July), may be effectually 
relieved by application of resorcin. Being himself a sufferer from eczema in the 
hands, he employed a vaselin ointment containing 10 per cent, of resorcin to allay 
the intolerable itching consequent upon the vesicular eruption and the infiltration 
of the skin. The effect was surprising, the itching and the infiltration disappearing 
rapidly. The period most favourable for application is when the eruption is 
oozing, and when desiccation has commenced. 
Boracine. — Dr. Thornton Parker states that the compound to which this name 
has been given consists of boric acid, glycerine, menthyl salicylate, menthol, 
thymol, and eucalyptol. Used in solution, it is a satisfactory dressing for wounds ; 
as a thick paste it is well adapted for the treatment of chronic ulcers of the legs. 
In the form of suppositories made with glycerine, and containing 25 per cent, 
of boracine, it forms a convenient method of treating threadworms or chronic 
leucorrhoea, while an ointment of it has given excellent results in the treatment 
of chronic eczema of the scalp. — J.A.M. Assoc., 1st May, 1886. 
Small-pox in Switzerland.— In May, 1883, the people of Zurich repealed 
the cantonal law of compulsory vaccination. The result of this decision may 
be seen from the official returns. According to these the deaths from small-pox 
in the canton of Zurich, which in the year 1881 were seven, and in 1882 and 
1883 nil, rose in 1881 to 11, in 1885 they were 73, and in the first three months 
of this year no fewer than 85. In fact, small-pox has become epidemic in the 
canton, and will, no doubt, more or less involve neighbouring cantons before it 
can be stamped out. The rejected law will be re-enacted, but before this can 
be done more deaths will have occurred. Further proof of the efficacy of 
