IS  VALERIAN  AN  ANTIDOTE  FOR  STRYCHNIA  ? 
119 
ON  GLYCERIN  AS  AN  EXCIPIENT  FOR  PILLS. 
By  Thomas  E.  Jenkins,  M.D. 
I  have  been  using  glycerin  (Price's  or  Bower's)  for  a  long  time 
as  an  excipient  for  pills,  and  with  great  success  and  satisfaction, 
but  alone  it  is  not  just  the  thing  for  quinine  ;  it  makes  a  mass 
with  four  times  its  weight  of  sulphate  of  quinia,  which  with 
care  gives  a  small  handsome  and  soluble  pill ;  it  is  hygroscopic 
however,  and  requires  lycopodium  and  a  tight  box  or  bottle.  The 
pill  is  as  small  or  smaller  than  that  made  with  aromatic  sul- 
phuric, or  tartaric  acid,  and  is  more  manageable.  It  is  "tender," 
however,  and  will  not  suit  for  sugar  coating.  This  glycerin 
quinia  pill  business  is  original  with  me,  so  far  as  I  know.  I  have 
made  a  number  of  experiments  with  other  bodies  and  find  as  a 
rule  that  it  makes  a  good  pill  mass  (hygroscopicity  excepted)  with 
nearly  all  saline  bodies  which  are  to  some  extent  soluble  in  it. 
It  makes  a  good  pill  with  sulphate  of  iron  ;  iodide  of  potassium ; 
bromide  of  potassium  ;  muriate  of  ammonia ;  sulphate  of  iron 
and  rhubarb ;  with  tannin,  kino,  etc.  ;  hypophosphite  of  quinia  ; 
hypophosphate  of  lime ;  sulphite  of  magnesia ;  citrate  of  iron 
and  quinia  ;  and  many  others  not  now  remembered,  including 
many  of  the  pill  mixtures  of  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia. 
With  iodine  and  iron  by  hydrogen  in  excess  it  gives,  with  a 
little  trituration,  a  greenish  mass  capable  of  being  rolled  into 
pills,  with  no  other  addition  than  glycerin,  which  may  be  en- 
closed in  a  tight  vial  with  a  little  finely  powdered  iron. 
IS  VALERIAN  AN  ANTIDOTE  FOR  STRYCHNIA? 
By  J.  Dabney  Palmer,  M.D. 
This  question  suggested  itself  to  my  mind  a  few  days  since  by 
the  apparent  inertness  of  strychnia  when  given  with  valerian. 
I  had  occasion  to  poison  four  cats.  To  two  of  them  I  gave 
strychnia  on  pieces  of  beef ;  both  died.  To  the  other  two  I 
gave  it  on  small  tufts  of  valerian,  and  without  the  least  efi'ect. 
The  quantity  given  to  each  cat  was  about  two  grains. 
[The  writer  does  not  say  in  what  manner  the  poisoned  vale- 
rian was  administered.  If  dry,  may  not  the  powdered  strychnia 
have  fallen  off?  The  experiment  is  worth  repetition  to  prove  or 
disprove  the  correctness  of  Dr.  Palmer's  inference. — Editor.] 
