^January SD    Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.  41 
the  expressed  ground  flaxseed,  it  was  thought  that  possibly  this 
added,  absorbed,  and  mechanically  retained  mineral  oil  would  be 
removed  in  larger  proportions  by  expression  than  the  natural  oil, 
which  was  yet  probably  contained  within  the  oil  cells  ;  but  a  com- 
parison of  the  above  results,  obtained  from  the  expressed  and  the 
extracted  oils,  respectively,  would  indicate  that  such  was  not  the 
case.  To  be  sure  the  extracted  oil  has  a  little  higher  saponification 
number  (104-1)  than  the  expressed  oil  (99-7),  but  this  variation  is 
not  enough  to  substantiate  this  theoretical  view. 
The  above  specific  gravities  and  the  saponification  numbers  are 
all  abnormal.  All  these  abnormalities  point  to  the  presence  of  a 
mineral  oil,  which  was  shown  to  be  present  in  the  above  oils  to  the 
extent  of  40  per  cent.,  or  basing  the  calculation  on  the  ground 
flaxseed  itself,  each  100  pounds  of  the  ground  flaxseed  examined 
contained  a  little  over  14  pounds  of  added  mineral  oil. 
The  writer  also  desires  to  note  here  that  while  the  above  investi- 
gation was  made,  a  sample  of  ground  flaxseed  was  met  with  which 
possibly  indicates  an  embryonic  attempt  at  adulteration,  and  no  one 
knows  what  may  come  of  it.  The  sample  contained  the  requisite 
amount  of  oil,  which  possessed  the  same  fluorescent  appearance  as 
those  examined  above,  but  the  oil  proved  upon  investigation  to  be 
different  from  anything  heretofore  examined  or  recorded.  It  had  a 
specific  gravity  of  0-921  at  15  C,  an  acid  number  of  106,  and  a 
saponification  number  of  about  155.  An  attempt  might  be  made 
to  explain  the  above  abnormal  numbers  on  the  ground  that  the 
linseed  oil  oxidizes  very  rapidly,  raising  the  acid  number  and  lower- 
ing the  saponification  number,  when  such  a  favorable  opportunity 
is  given  as  is  presented  in  ground  flaxseed  ;  but  this  will  neither 
explain  the  fluorescence  nor  the  presence  of  an  undue  amount  of 
unsaponifiable  matter.  The  exact  basis  of  this  adulteration  the 
writer  has  thus  far  been  unable  to  ascertain. 
RECENT  LITERATURE  RELATING  TO  PHARMACY. 
OUTBREAK  OF  TETANUS   IX   ST.  LOUIS. 
In  speaking  of  the  recent  outbreak  of  tetanus  in  St.  Louis,  due  to 
the  injection  of  diphtheria  antitoxin,  Dr.  A.  C.  Abbott  (Phila.  Med. 
Jour.t  November  16th),  in  brief  says  that  the  real  cause  of  the 
fatalities  was  either  one  of  two  conditions,  namely  :  the  presence  ot 
