970 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters. 
With further reference to the species of drug specified by the 
Pharmacopoeia, it should be stated that the male fern of com¬ 
merce, obtained from Europe, is frequently contaminated with 
the rhizomes of other species of fern, principally those of 
Vryopteris spinulosa Kunze. Pendorff (1903), who examined 20 
samples of the commercial drug, reported that 12 of them con¬ 
tained over 50 per cent, of rhizomes of this species. 
The pharmacopceial directions concerning the collection of the 
rhizomes in autumn are in keeping with specifications given in 
most of the foreign pharmacopoeias 1 and are based on the re¬ 
sults of extensive investigations carried out in continental 
Europe and England. Analyses of the drug harvested at dif¬ 
ferent periods of the year have shown autumn to be the sea¬ 
son in which the therapeutically active constituents are pres¬ 
ent in greatest amount. Thus, the firm of Caesar and Loretz, 
in their Berichte for 1898, state that the amount of active con¬ 
stituents present does not begin to approach the maximum until 
the month of August and that it again begins to diminish in 
October. They, therefore, conclude that the rhizomes should 
be harvested only in the months of August, September and 
October. Similar conclusions were drawn by Ed. Schmidt 2 
from a series of observations made in France in 1903. The fol¬ 
lowing table compiled by the latter shows the variation in crude 
filicin content of the ethereal extracts (oleoresins) prepared 
from the rhizomes harvested during six consecutive months of 
the year. 
Table 8. — ■ Variation of crude filicin content due to season. 
Time of harvesting 
Crude filicin content of oleoresins prepared from 
rhizomes gathered in the — 
Forest near 
Paris 
Jura 
Mts. 
Vosges 
Mts. 
Vosges Mts. 
Peeled Rhiz. 
Per cent 
Per cent 
Per cent 
Per cent 
M n.y. 
9.70 
12.78 
13.76 
_ 
JUD6>..... 
10.80 
13.86 
15.65 
12.75 
J u ly .. . 
10.86 
14.60 
17.70 
14.85 
August. 
11.64 
17.80 
19.70 
15.60 
September.... 
13.78 
19.60 
20.76 
17.76 
October. 
11.80 
18.68 
19.80 
16.70 
1 The Spanish Pharmacopoeia (1905) directs thae the rhizomes be collected 
at the end of spring or in the autumn, 
2 These pour Vobtention du Diplome de Docteur de VUnwersite de Parte 
(1903), p. 116. 
