Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
December,  1908.  \ 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
595 
Schweizerische  Wochenschrift  fur  Chemie  u.  Pharmacie  (page  621) 
Dr.  Fleissig  comments  on  several  cases  of  fatal  poisoning  that  have 
followed  the  ingestion  of  large  quantities  of  Bismuth  subnitrate  for 
diagnostic  purposes  in  connection  with  the  Rontgen  rays. 
He  concludes  that  the  poisoning  was  due  to  liberated  nitrite  com- 
pounds rather  than  the  absorption  of  bismuth  or  to  possible  con- 
tamination, the  theory  being  that  the  intestinal  bacteria  tend  to 
decompose  the  nitrate  with  subsequent  formation  of  nitrous  acid. 
Hypodermics  of  Iron  in  Tuberculous  Ancemia. — Peters,  in  the 
Medical  Record,  says  that  excellent  results  can  be  obtained  by  hypo- 
dermic injections  of  iron,  in  cases  of  secondary  anaemia  accompany- 
ing tuberculosis.  He  uses  a  solution  of  iron  citrate,  with  or  without 
strychnine  and  sodium  arsenate.  (/.  Am.  M.  Assoc.,  Oct.  24,  1908, 
p.  1461.) 
Commercial  Thyroid. — Hunt  and  Seidell  (/.  Am.  M.  Assoc.,  Oct. 
24,  1908,  p.  1385)  point  out  that  there  is  a  great  variation  in  the 
activity  of  the  commercial  preparations  of  thyroid.  Thus,  for  in- 
stance, a  so-called  five-grain  tablet  of  thyroid  may  contain  but  two 
grains  of  dried  thyroid,  so  as  to  represent  five  grains  of  the  fresh 
gland,  or  it  may  contain  five  grains  of  the  dried  gland  and  thus 
represent  ten  or  more  grains  of  the  fresh  substance. 
Adulterated  Gentian. — The  adulteration  of  powdered  gentian  has 
been  quite  common,  in  England.  As  a  ready  means  of  differenti- 
ating between  the  true  and  the  adulterated  material,  Wightman  sug- 
gests a  practical  application  of  the  faculty  of  the  several  components 
to  absorb  water.  He  points  out  that  the  genuine  drug  absorbs  much 
more  water  than  any  of  its  adulterants  and  that  when  8  or  10 
grammes  are  placed  in  about  150  c.c.  of  water  in  a  200  c.c.  graduate 
the  sediment  of  the  pure  drug  will  measure  much  more  than  the 
corresponding  sediment  from  an  adulterated  sample.  (Pharm. 
Jour.,  London,  Aug.  29,  1908,  p.  255.) 
Caffeine-free  Coffee. — Sendrich  and  Murdfield  have  analyzed  four- 
teen samples  of  so-called  caffeine-free  coffee  and  ten  samples  of 
ordinary  roasted  coffee  and  have  found  that  while  the  latter  con- 
tained an  average  of  1.186  per  cent,  of  caffeine  the  former  averaged 
0.218  per  cent,  or  about  one-sixth  the  amount  present  in  ordinary 
coffee.  (Pharm.  Jour.,  Oct.  10,  1908,  p.  464,  from  Zeitschr.  f.  Unters. 
Nahr.  u.  Genussmittel.) 
Deterioration  of  Fluidextracts. — Dr.  William  Jay  Schieffelin 
reports  that  from  tests  conducted  in  the  laboratory  of  Schieffelin  & 
