August 20 , lsro.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
117 
REPORT OF EXPERIMENTS ON THE BROMIDE 
OF POTASSIUM USED IN MEDICINE. 
The bromide of potassium now used in medicine is 
remarkably pure. Out of six samples described below, 
only one contained iodine; and even in that case the 
amount of iodine was very minute. The crystals of bro¬ 
mide of potassium, like those of the iodide, are some¬ 
times transparent and sometimes opaque; the latter kind 
containing a certain amount of water, while the former 
are almost, if not entirely, anhydrous. 
Analyses of these six samples gave the following re¬ 
sults :— 
No. 
Obtained from 
Quan¬ 
tity 
taken. 
Silver- 
salt ob¬ 
tained. 
Silver 
required. 
1 
Eye Hospital, Moor- \ 
Grains. 
fields ; transparent > 
kind .J 
5-955 
9-32 
5-40 
2 
London Hospital; ditto.. 
5-955 
9-32 
5-40 
3 
Douthwaite,58,Bishops- ) 
gate Street; ditto .. j 
5-955 
9-22 
5-40 
4 
Skin Hospital; ditto .... 
5-955 
9-40 
5-40 
5 
"Warner and Co., Fore 1 
Street; ditto .J 
5-955 
9-26 
5-40 
6 
Bell and Co., Oxford j 
Street; opaque kind / 
The theoretical numbers \ 
5 - 955 
9-05 
5-26 
for absolutely pure f 
bromide of potassium ( 
5-955 
9-40 
5-40 
are./ 
A determination of water was made in the sample of 
opaque bromide (No. 6). It contained 2’7 per cent, of 
water. 
The sample No. 3, from Douthwaite’s, contained a 
trace of iodide of potassium ; all the rest were quite free 
from iodine. 
These results show that chlorides are almost entirely 
absent from the commercial bromide of potassium in some 
instances ; and that in the worst of the samples examined 
there was not more than 5-2 per cent, of chloride of po¬ 
tassium. 
The method of examination adopted in this case was 
the same as that described in the Report on iodide of 
potassium.— British Medical Journal. 
THE MILK AND WHEY CURES. * 
BY DR. HERMANN LIEBERT, 
Professor of Clinical Medicine in the University of Breslau. 
The time is past when mineral waters were re¬ 
garded as simple units (without reference to their con¬ 
stituents), where the mysticism of the healing power 
of the spirits bubbling from the depths of the earth had 
a particular charm, not for the layman only, but also 
for many practitioners ; when the might of the pro¬ 
pitious Naiads -within the province of balneology gave 
rise, not only to large numbers of doggrel verses, but to 
a still greater quantity of prose writing. Natural phi¬ 
losophy, chemistry and experience sifted by a process of 
severe criticism, have at last begun to bear sway even in 
this department. We have become aware that the 
ghosts rising from the deep are nothing but aerated 
water impregnated with salts derived from the soil and 
rocks through wliich it has flowed, and from this fact we 
derive a knowledge beneficial to therapeutics, as to the 
proper relations of solution and chemical combination. 
Of the gases again, we know that sulphuretted hydrogen 
for instance, is generated by the decomposition of sulphate 
* Abstract of a lecture published in the ‘ Medical Times and 
Gazette.’ 
of lime or other sulphates; the bubbling carbonic acid 
from carbonated salts, earths, and particularly from 
carbonate of lime. From a chemical point of view we are 
better acquainted with the mineral waters than we are 
with most of our composite medicines; we know that 
their temperature depends on a definite law, that of the 
increase of the heat of the earth by one degree Centi¬ 
grade for every hundred feet in depth; we know that 
from the very cold to the hot springs, physical condition 
as regards temperature exercises a decided influence on 
their action. 
Concerning the bath, it has been ascertained that the 
salts contained in solution are not at all, or but little, 
absorbed by the skin. Consequently that a direct influ¬ 
ence is exercised by the bath only in diseases of the skin 
or in affections which have communication with the skin 
by means of fistulous sores and otherwise. The unques¬ 
tionable influence exercised on the nerves of the skin is 
much weakened by the epidermis, but nevertheless the 
physical action of the bath becomes quite prominent in 
the majority of diseases which do not directly concern 
the surface of the body. Here temperature plays a most 
important part; also in douches the degree of concentra¬ 
tion, the force of the jet and the height from which the 
water falls; in vapour baths minute atomization and 
high temperature, etc. 
The more hygiene becomes a subject of close and pro¬ 
found investigation, the more does climatology attain to 
its full and important rights. On taking a survey 
of many and accurate meteorological, physical, geogra¬ 
phical, and geological investigations, it is found that 
they afford to the physician many useful and important 
data, but at the same time they impress him with a 
feeling of the responsibility of acting on a strictly critical 
and scientific basis in respect to such knowledge. 
The courses of treatment by milk and whey occupy a 
prominent position amongst the hygienic courses, which 
are very often combined with climatic and mineral-water 
treatment. They are annually ordered for so large a num¬ 
ber of patients that it seems very necessary a clear idea 
should be given of them; since, on the one hand, the milk 
cure, more particularly with respect to the different 
species of animals which supply the milk, has not yet 
been sufficiently appreciated, whilst on the other hand, 
the course of treatment by whey has been very much 
over-estimated, having attained to such proportions in 
the watering-places of Silesia as to render the latter 
rivals even to those of Switzerland. Most health re¬ 
sorts where the whey cure is practised have an advan¬ 
tageous climatic position; their arrangements and the 
whole mode of life in them are well arranged; the me¬ 
dical advice is mostly derived from full experience and 
beneficial results in chronic cases cannot be denied. 
Nevertheless, we must in many cases confidently con¬ 
clude that the patients have been benefited or cured, 
not in consequence of, but in spite of the whey. Con¬ 
cerning this point, a want of knowledge in natural phi¬ 
losophy and chemistry is felt by many physicians, and 
this again proves that secular traditions must not be 
mistaken for verified experience. 
The author then makes the following remarks on the 
chemical nature of milk and whey:—“If we compare 
different kinds of milk with reference to their solid con¬ 
stituents we find that asses’ milk is most dilute, contain¬ 
ing scarcely 9 per cent, solid matter; next stands human 
milk with somewhat over 11 per cent.; next, goats’ milk 
with 13£ per cent.; next cows’ milk with over 14 per 
cent.; then sheep’s milk containing 16 per cent, (accord¬ 
ing to an analysis recently made in my laboratory, 
even 18 per cent.); lastly, mares’ milk, containing 17 
per cent. From these facts asses’ milk would be ap¬ 
plicable in cases where dilute milk seems desirable. 
Goats’ and cows’ milk represent the average quality; 
sheep’s milk would be suitable when that containing a 
large amount of nourishment is thought necessary, and 
it is preferable to the rich mares’ milk—which in the 
i 3 
