Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
October,  1910.  J 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
483 
Ergot. — Gordon  Sharp  presents  an  interesting  historical  study 
of  ergot,  its  origin,  botany,  and  chemistry.  Under  the  latter  head- 
ing he  reviews,  at  some  length,  the  more  recent  work  on  the 
chemistry  of  ergot  and  concludes  with  a  review  of  the  toxicology, 
pharmacology  and  therapeutics  of  the  drug  {Pharm.  J.,  Lond., 
1910,  v.  85,  pp.  38  and  68). 
Barger  and  Dale  report  the  isolation  of  an  active  principle 
from  ergot  extracts  which  they  believe  to  be  the  substance  respon- 
sible for  the  intense  activity  exhibited  by  some  ergot  extracts 
in  producing  contraction  of  the  isolated  uterus  of  the  cat.  The 
relative  abundance  of  this  principle  in  dialysed  extracts  suggested 
that  it  was  wholly  or  partly  produced  by  micro-organisms  and 
this  supposition  was  confirmed  by  physiological  experiments  {Pharm. 
J.,  London,  1910,  v.  30,  p.  757). 
Methyl  Alcohol. — George  Arends  believes  it  would  be  justifi- 
able to  investigate  further  the  possibility  of  using  purified  methyl 
alcohol  as  a  solvent  for  pharmaceutical  preparations  that  are  to 
be  used  externally.  While  he  admits  that  the  available  literature 
is  strongly  against  the  use  of  this  solvent  at  the  present  time,  he 
appears  to  feel  that  much  of  the  available  evidence  is  misleading 
and  that  the  reported  deleterious  results  may  be  due  entirely  to 
the  contaminating  materials  found  in  the  commercial  wood  alcohol 
{Pharm.  Ztg.,  1910,  v.  55,  p.  588). 
The  above  suggestion  has  been  vigorously  opposed  in  Germany 
as  being  fraught  with  possible  danger  and  it  has  been  pointed  out 
that  the  bulk  of  the  available  evidence  would  appear  to  indicate 
that  even  chemically  pure  methyl  alcohol  is  dangerous.  Until 
this  evidence  has  been  shown  to  be  fallacious  it  would,  of  course, 
be  inadmissible  to  use  methyl  alcohol  as  a  solvent  in  any  medicinal 
preparation. 
Mexican  Jalap  Root. — E.  M.  Holmes  points  out  that  the 
French,  German,  Danish,  and  United  States  Pharmacopoeias  each 
requires  that  jalap  yield  7  per  cent,  of  resin,  while  the  Belgian 
and  Dutch  Pharmacopoeias  require  8  per  cent.  He  asserts  that 
recently  jalap  assaying  as  high  as  17  per  cent,  of  resin  has  ap- 
peared on  the  London  and  Hamburg  markets  and  attributes  the 
improved  quality  to  the  unusually  high  price.  He  maintains  that 
a  good  market  price  is  almost  certain  to  lead  to  a  supply  of  good 
quality  and  that  a  price  that  will  not  pay  the  collector  will  de- 
preciate the  quality  of  any  drug  {Pharm.  J.,  London,  1910,  v.  30, 
p.  789). 
