440 
ETHERIZED COD-LIVER OIL. 
In a paper recently published in the ‘British Medical Journal,’ by Dr. Balthazar A. 
Foster, there are certain results of his investigation and observation stated, on the advan¬ 
tage of combining ether with cod-liver oil, which, although in the main, for the con¬ 
sideration of the physician, may not be uninteresting, nor perhaps unimportant, to the 
pharmaceutist. Taking it as an established fact, that the difficulty of assimilating fat 
is a constant characteristic of the dyspepsia of phthisis, and further, that a marked im¬ 
provement in such patients is observed when the ability to digest fatty matter is restored, 
Dr. Foster has set himself to work to determine the best means of “ augmenting the secre¬ 
tions which are specially devoted to the digestion of fatty matters ,” and has determined to 
his own satisfaction that, “ ether not only obtains for us the secretions required to digest 
fats, but promotes the absorption of these fats when digested .” In some cases the ether 
has been given in water alone before tbe oil; but the favourite method seems to be to 
combine the tw r o, in the proportion of from ten to twenty minims of ether purus, P.B., 
to two drachms of oil. One advantage of the combination seems to be the power of the 
former to mask the unpleasant properties of the latter. Dr. Foster recites many cases to 
prove that where cod-liver oil by itself had failed to produce improvement and to arrest 
tbe wasting, the addition of ether has been eminently successful in allaying nausea, and 
producing a decided increase in the weight of the patient. 
OZONIC ETHER. 
The substance called ozonic ether, and which is now creating so much interest in the 
profession, is peroxide of hydrogen in ether. The mixture thus formed was first made 
by myself; I w r as testing the action of the peroxide of hydrogen on various substances, 
organic and inorganic, and having one day added a strong solution of the peroxide to 
some ether, I was surprised to find that a portion of the peroxide seemed to pass to the 
ether, the ether, when decanted off, having a very strong taste of peroxide, and yielding 
oxygen freely when treated with oxide of manganese. On being kept, the ether was 
discovered to undergo further change, the oxygen becoming more stable and fixed. The 
addition of a little alcohol to the ether facilitates the absorption of the peroxide. The 
combination of the oxygen with the ether and some water, although it is very slight, is 
persistent, for the mixture has been sent to Australia without deterioration. The com¬ 
pound is, without doubt, a useful agent. I think I may claim it as an addition to our 
list of remedies likely to hold its place. 
I used it in the first instance for diffusion in the air of the sick-room, dispersing it in 
the form of spray. It is quick in action, and effective for purifying the air; it does not 
charge the air with moisture, and it does not irritate the breathing organs. The disad¬ 
vantage of it is that it cannot be safely used near a light or fire. It should be sprayed 
through a glass tube.— Dr. Richardson , in ‘ Medical Times and Gazette .’ 
'V 
HAIR AND HAIR DYES. 
The attention which we called, some time since, to the new and perfect black hair 
dye which Dr. M Call Anderson lately incidentally hit upon, produced a long series of 
commentaries from accomplished dermatologists and others, well qualified to speak on 
the not uninteresting subject. Mr. Erasmus Wilson, a leader amongst the professors of 
dermatology, now enters upon, and discusses the whole question in a series of very in¬ 
teresting observations in the‘Journal of Cutaneous Medicine.’ He observes, that the 
hair owes its property of dyeing to its porosity; which is evidently greater than its phy¬ 
siological structure would lead us to infer. Another of its properties, namely, the pre¬ 
sence of sulphur in its constitution, renders it prone to darken under the use of certain 
miueral substances; for example, lead and mercury, whose compounds with sulphur are 
black. Thus if a weak solution of lead or mercury be brushed into the hair, a certain 
quantity of the solution will penetrate the hair, and a dark colour will be produced in 
consequence of the formation of a sulphuret of lead or sulphuret of mercury. The depth 
