418 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS, 
[November 23,1872. 
much, useful information, hut in which too many long 
and comparatively obsolete words are used, as in the 
following description of one of the methods of exhibiting 
medicines, “ The Iatraleptic Method .—This process re¬ 
quires more than mere opposition ; the term signifies to 
cure by anointing [larptvu and a\ei(pcv). It has also been 
called the epidermic method , anatripsologia (ayaTpi(3w, 
to rub in) and espnoic medicine .” Under the heading of 
mental causes modifying the action of medicines, some 
lines of poetry are given, which seem strangely out of 
place so near to elaborate chemical formulae. 
The second part of the work includes the drugs from 
the inorganic kingdom, and the explanations of the pre¬ 
parations and tests of the Pharmacopoeia are excellent. 
The long list of synonyms for each substance hardly de¬ 
serve the importance given them ; it can be very little 
good to know that hyposulphite of soda has been called 
“ natrum oxidatum subsulphurosum,” or that citrate of 
potash once went by the name of “ salt of Riverius.” No 
such objection can be made to the foreign synonyms, 
which are not sufficiently well known in this country. 
Polio wing the description of each drug is an account of 
its therapeutic qualities, and here, as in many other 
works on the same subject for the use of students, there 
is a want of definiteness, even more than the present 
state of therapeutics justifies; all the possible actions of 
the substances under consideration are put down one 
after the other, and no great stress is laid on the particu¬ 
lar properties of each drug, which a small practical ex¬ 
perience enables any one to obtain. For instance, 
ammonia’is “medicinally employed as a diffusible stimu¬ 
lant and restorative, antacid, antispasmodic, diaphoretic, 
sudorific, expectorant, antidote, counter-irritant, vesicant, 
etc. It has been recommended in the later stages of 
febrile and inflammatory diseases, and in other cases 
where there is great nervous prostration ; also to hasten 
the cold stage of intermittent fever and to promote the 
eruption in febrile exanthemata; in the later stages of 
pneumonia and in chronic bronchitis; in atonic dys¬ 
pepsia, with acidity of the primce vise, and flatulence ; 
in syncope; in spasms; to avert fits of epilepsy; in 
hysteria ; in amenorrhoea and chlorosis; to dissipate 
the effects of alcohol; in delirium tremens ; as an anti¬ 
dote to sedative poisons, such as hydrocyanic acid, digita¬ 
lis, etc.” And this is not all. This instance, taken at 
random, would seem to indicate to the commencing 
student that ammonia is a universal panacea ; and yet 
how unfrequently does liquor ammonias appear in pre¬ 
scriptions, so that a very false idea is obtained of its 
importance. 
Considerable stress is laid on the objection to the pre¬ 
sence of nitric acid in the solution of citrate of bismuth 
and ammonia, but the acid is not free, the solution being 
generally alkaline, and it has never been shown that the 
presence of a nitrate is in any way injurious. 
The third part of the work is occupied with the con¬ 
sideration of organic materia medica, and is brought up 
to the times by the introduction of the recent researches 
of Drs. Brunton, Frazer and Harley. Considerable space 
is occupied by botanical descriptions of the plants re¬ 
ferred to, and the obsolete Linnean names are still re¬ 
tained. 
The same remarks that have been made with regard to 
the therapeutics of the second part of the book apply to 
this one also in many of the articles. Some of the de¬ 
scriptions seem also to mislead. Thus, in discussing the 
use of quinine in simple intermittent fever, our author 
says, “ it is only’ after visceral disease, or other complica¬ 
tions when present, have been suitably treated by other 
remedies, that these remedies can be safely 7 ' or profitably 
applied. I his statement is peculiar, and though it may 
be true, does not give a clear idea as to the general way 
in which the drug is employed. 
Notwithstanding the pecularities above pointed out, 
this work cannot but prove a useful one to students of 
the subject. 
*** No notice can be taken of anonymous communica¬ 
tions. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenti¬ 
cated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily 
for publication , but as a guarantee of good faith. 
Commercial Morality. 
Sir,—Will you allow me to reply through your Journal to 
the letter signed by Messrs Newham and Co., which appeared 
in No. 124, on the 9th of November. It is headed <£ Specimen 
of Commercial Morality,” and refers to their purchase of two 
cases of sponge, of which they give full particulars as to 
their being deceived in the weights charged and actual 
weights, and also in the net produce of sponge when the- 
sand was abstracted. 
Now, Sir, allow me, as a sponge merchant of very many 
years ’ standing, to inform your correspondents that if they 
will buy original packages as imported, and turn dealers 
themselves, they must put up with the consequences. They 
cannot reasonably expect to buy fairly cleaned goods, such as 
a respectable firm would supply them with, at the same rate 
as that with the full complement of sand in, as received from 
Smyrna. 
Any druggist can ascertain through the wholesale houses 
or drug brokers in London in what state the sponge is re¬ 
ceived from abroad, and he will then find where what he 
would term the “ immorality ” proceeds from. If he wants 
to purchase sponge, let him give the fair market value for it, 
and not buy the sand and sponge as it is imported ; and if he 
finds too much of the former and too little of the real article 
in the package, cry out that he has been taken in. I am 
sorry to say that too many parties 'who retail sponge think, 
when they are offered the original goods at a low price, that 
they had been previously paying very long prices, and con¬ 
sequently give an order and then find their mistake out. 
J. W. Pyke. 
4, Great Prescott Street, Goodman s-Fields, 
London, November 10th, 1872. 
Sir,—The reply of Mr. W. Judd in your impression of the 
16th, to the letter upon Commercial Morality in that of the 
9th, states very clearly and truly the process of loading sponge 
with sand. 
Sponge in its natural state is found growing to the rocks,, 
no doubt sometimes near a sandy bottom, but the sand ia 
all (or nearly all) washed into it by those who find it to their 
advantage to do so. 
Having visited some of the centres of the heavy sponge 
trade in the Mediterranean, and seen the sponge being pre¬ 
pared for the English market, we clearly see the advantage 
which the dealer gains over the English buyers; the former 
knows how much sand he has washed into his sponge, the 
latter has only to guess at it. It is a fact that you may pur¬ 
chase sponge at the average commercial weight, which is 
about 70 lb. of sand and 30 lb. of sponge to 100 lb. You may 
then order it to be doubly weighted, so that the 100 lb. con¬ 
tains only 15 lb. of sponge. 
In France the custom is to have sponge perfectly light, 
and to “ wash out ” every impurity, instead of “ washing in ” 
sand. Having had considerable transactions in light sponges 
dressed after the Paris fashion, we arranged at the time of the 
Franco-German war to bring into our own factory workmen 
from Paris, accustomed to the process of cleansing sponges. 
Many are still greatly prejudiced against it, and having- 
been so long accustomed to the sanded sponges at from 2s. to 
12s. per lb., they are with difficulty convinced that light 
sponge at 16s. to 40s. are decidedly cheaper. In purchasing- 
light sponges, buyers see exactly what each piece costs. 
All this is done to make the sponge nominally cheap per 
lb., and the retailers of this article are answerable for this state 
of things, for they too dearly love a cheap quotation. The 
light sponge reaches England direct from the fisheries in 
bales, with little freight, for it is tightlyjcompressed, whereas the 
sanded sponge is opened and packed in cases at a far greater 
bulk, and consequently freight. Again, the labour of sand¬ 
ing is greater than that of washing, and requires consider¬ 
able space to place each piece separate, and great patience to 
wait till the sand dries into it. 
