Am.  Jour.  Pharm.i 
December,  1910.  j 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
575 
conservative  and  sane  acceptation  of  the  results  of  laboratory  ex- 
perimentation will  serve  to  eliminate  a  tremendous  amount  of 
rubbish  that  has  accumulated  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  (/.  Am.  M. 
Ass.,  1910,  v.  55,  p.  781). 
Proprietaries  in  Italy. — A.  Zambler,  in  a  communication  in  the 
Gazetta  degli  Ospedali,  voices  the  general  discontent  that  is  being 
felt  in  Italy  with  the  way  in  which  proprietary  medicines  are  being 
advertised.  He  points  out  that  the  third  edition  of  the  Italian 
Pharmacopoeia  includes  a  notable  display  of  proprietaries,  and  that 
it  is  the  only  pharmacopoeia  in  the  world  that  vouchsafes  such  an 
effective  form  of  official  advertising  to  the  manufacturer  of 
proprietary  remedies  (/.  Am.  M.  Ass.,  1910,  v.  55,  p.  879). 
Alkaloids. — H.  C.  Fuller  outlines  a  method  for  the  separation 
of  cocaine  and  strychnine  and  atropine  and  strychnine  when  they 
occur  together.  The  method  depends  on  the  ready  hydrolysis  of 
cocaine  and  of  atropine,  leaving  the  strychnine  to  be  shaken  out  with 
chloroform  (/.  Ind.  and  Eng.  Chem.,  1910,  v.  2,  p.  378). 
Asafetida. — W.  A.  Pearson  points  out  that  much  of  the  variation 
regarding  the  composition  of  different  consignments  of  asafetida 
is  due  to  the  variation  in  sampling  this  drug.  He  calls  attention 
to  the  difficulty  of  collecting  representative  samples  and  the  need 
for  adopting  a  more  uniform  method  of  collecting  samples  (/.  Ind. 
and  Eng.  Chem.,  1910,  v.  2,  p.  421). 
Agar-agar. — Th.  Dietzsch  calls  attention  to  a  form  of  cut  agar- 
agar  that  is  now  available  on  the  European  markets.  This  coarsely 
comminuted  form  is  thought  to  be  medicinally  superior  to  the  ground 
or  powdered  substance,  but  is  equally  well  taken  by  the  patient. 
In  practice  the  substance  is  best  administered  with  porridge  or 
oatmeal  at  breakfast  time,  in  doses  of  about  a  tablespoonful  (Pharm. 
J.  (Lond.),  1910,  v.  85,  p.  383). 
Arseno-Benzol  and  Arsen-Phenol-Amin  are  names  that  are 
being  applied  to  Ehrlich's  "  606,"  the  remedy  for  syphilis  and 
allied  diseases  that  has  attracted  such  wide-spread  attention  abroad. 
The  remedy  will  be  marketed  in  this  country  in  the  very  near 
future  and  promises  to  be  one  of  the  most  popular  new  remedies 
ever  introduced. 
Camphenol. — The  chemical  laboratory  of  the  American  Medical 
Association  reports  that  examination  of  camphenol  shows  that  this 
preparation  is  but  a  modification  of  the  well-known  camphorated 
phenol :   a  portion  of  the  phenol  having  been  replaced  by  cresol 
