9 
No. 
Specimen. 
Digitoxin 
content. 
Toxic dose 
for 100 
gram frog. 
1 
Leaves from North Harz, 1901 
Per cent. 
0. 33 
Gram. 
0. 03 
2 
Leaves from North Harz, 1901 (selected) 
. 163 
.03 
3 
Leaves from South Harz, 1901 
. 14 
.04 
4 
Leaves from South Harz, 1901 (selected) 
. 185 
.03 
5 
Leaves from North Harz, 1901 
.125 
.03 
7 
Leaves from Thuringia 
.115 
.05 
10 
Leaves, old, 1900 
.226 
.06 
11 
Leaves, Harz (finely powdered) 
.235 
0. 04-. 05 
12 
Leaves, Harz (finely powdered) 
.18 
.05 
Famulener and Lyons® carried out a similar research with the 
following results: 
Specimen fluid extract of digitalis. 
Purified 
digitoxin 
content. 
Toxic 
dose for 40 
gram frog. 
A 
Per cent. 
0. 196 
.258 
.182 
Gram. 
0.026 
.029 
.038 
B 
C 
Barger and Shaw b found that the ratio of toxicity of the tincture 
of digitalis to the toxicity of the digitoxin contained in the specimen 
varied in the series of nine tinctures from 3.5 : 1 to 6.9 : 1, or, in other 
words, tinctures from 3.5 to 6.9 times as toxic as the digitoxin which 
was obtained by chemical assay. Focke c and Fromme carried out 
a similar set of comparative experiments and concluded that the 
digitoxin content and the physiological activity as determined by 
experiments on the frog did not run parallel. Reed d and Vander- 
kleed, using guinea pigs, claimed to have found a certain parallelism, 
but a study of their results shows that the parallelism is by no means 
without exceptions: 
Preparation. 
Chemical 
assay. 
Gram dig- 
itoxin in 
100 cubic 
centime- 
ters. 
Physiological 
assay. 
M. L. D.« for 
guinea pig of 
240 grams 
weight. 
United States Pharmacopoeia tincture ; 
Grams. 
0. 0377 
c. c. 
0.6 
do 
.023 
1.0-1.25 
do 
.0277 
.75 
do 
.0254 
1.0 
Fat free tincture. 
.027 
1.0-1.25 
Fluid extract 
.264 
0.1 
do 
.2405 
| .09 
.do. . . 
.234 
l • 1 
.08 
Powdered extract 
/l. 061 
g . 019-0. 025 
a F amulener and Lyons, Proc. Am. Pharm. Ass., Phila., 1902, L, 415. 
& Barger and Shaw, Chem. and Physiol. Assay of Digitalis Tinctures, Handbook of Pharmacy, 1904, 
541; Pharm. J. and Tr., 1904, LXXIII, 249. 
cFocke, Deutsch .aerzt. Zeit., 1904, VI, 292. 
dReed and Vanderkleed, Am. J. Pharm., Phila., 1908, LXXX, 110. 
eM.L. D.=minimum lethal dose. 
.1 Per cent. 
g Gram. 
