As™pteXrPi9ia'}    Manufacture  of  Medicinal  Plasters.  425 
to  the  ordinary  uses  for  India  rubber  adhesive  plaster  in  operative 
surgery,  there  is  a  rapidly  increasing  field  opening  for  its  use  as 
a  therapeutic  application.  A  glance  at  the  medical  journals  of 
the  last  few  years  reveals  many  methods  whereby  such  an  ap- 
plication is  being  made.  For  example,  I  note  the  application  of 
adhesive  plaster  in  various  forms  for  corns,  bunions,  swellings, 
inflammations,  glandular  enlargements,  cedema,  mammitis,  mammary 
abscess,  inflamed  joints,  gout,  rheumatism,  effusions,  varicose  veins, 
ulcers,  pleurisy,  pleuropneumonia,  hiccough,  bronchitis,  neuralgia, 
lumbago,  prolapsed  stomach,  floating  kidney,  excessive  sweating, 
frost  bites,  tuberculosis,  adenoids,  boils,  carbuncles.  These  varied 
and  constantly  increasing  uses  suggest  that  possibly  in  many 
instances  medicated  plasters  would  be  indicated,  thus  giving  the 
action  of  certain  medicaments  in  addition  to  the  mechanical  and 
physical  action  of  the  plaster.  One  writer  has  suggested  the 
covering  of  the  part,  to  which  adhesive  plaster  is  applied,  with 
certain  medicinal  agents  and  then  applying  the  plaster.  The 
process  which  I  have  outlined  of  brushing  or  spreading  the  medica- 
tion over  adhesive  plaster  would  seem  to  be  the  more  acceptable. 
In  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  1880,  belladonna  plaster  was  prepared 
with  the  alcoholic  extract  of  the  root.  This  was  also  the  case 
with  the  British  Pharmacopoeia  of  1898.  The  revisions  of  the 
U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  of  1890  and  1900,  however,  substituted  the 
extract  of  the  leaf  for  that  of  the  root.  No  good  reason  seems 
to  have  been  advanced  for  this  change,  and  many  reasons  could 
be  urged  in  favor  of  the  extract  of  the  root. 
A  plaster  of  the  strength  of  that  of  the  present  Pharmacopoeia, 
made  with  the  extract  of  the  leaf,  is  so  filled  with  the  peculiar 
waxy,  resinous  constituents  of  the  leaf,  and  so  colored  with  chloro- 
phyll as  to  be  highly  objectionable.  The  belladonna  plasters  of  the 
market  are  made  almost  entirely  from  the  root.  A  plaster  thus  made 
either  by  using  the  base  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  or  an  India  rubber 
base,  is  easier  to  spread,  more  adhesive,  and  altogether  more  de- 
sirable than  that  made  from  the  leaf,  and  in  my  judgment  in  the 
forthcoming  revision  the  extract  of  the  root  should  be  restored 
to  its  former  place  in  the  making  up  of  a  plaster. 
Neither  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  1880  nor  that  of  1890  established 
a  definite  alkaloidal  strength  for  belladonna  plaster.  As  a  con- 
sequence belladonna  plasters  could  be  found  in  the  market  varying 
all  the  way  from  the  slightest  trace  of  alkaloid  up  to  and  above 
