88 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I    February,  1902. 
where  the  practitioner  should  look  for  authoritative  information. 
He  admits  that  the  medical  journals  are  too  apt  to  be  swayed  by 
their  advertising  pages,  and  that  at  best,  reports  and  opinions  of 
individual  workers  are  of  little  value ;  and  further,  that  few  if  any 
medical  men  have  the  courage  to  report  their  failures  with  new 
remedies.  This  latter  fact  has  indeed  been  most  unfortunate,  as  it 
has  been  the  cause  of  untold  disappointment  and  loss,  not  alone  to 
the  suffering  patients,  but  also  to  the  doctor,  who,  having  been 
induced  to  try  a  certain  highly  recommended  compound,  fails  abso- 
lutely to  get  the  desired  results,  and  concludes  that  either  the  man 
who  was  guilty  of  writing  the  glowing  account  of  successful  use  was 
mistaken,  or  that  he  was  pecuniarily  interested.  And  while  it  takes 
a  number  of  such  experiences  to  make  or  have  the  'proper  effect,  it 
is  just  a  matter  of  time  when  the  medical  profession  will  awake  to  the 
necessity  of  having  more  than  the  say  so  of  one  or  even  half  a  dozen 
professional  advertisers  before  they  give  aid  to  and  prescribe  a  drug 
they  know  little  or  nothing  about.  In  this  respect  the  medical  liter- 
ature of  the  past  year  shows  commendable  progress  over  that 
immediately  preceding.  There  are  a  number  of  reports  of  unsuc- 
cessful use  of  drugs,  or  the  appearance  of  unlooked-for  and  dis- 
agreeable secondary  actions  of  the  drugs  or  chemicals  employed. 
Adrenalin. — The  active  principle  of  the  suprarenal  gland  has 
played  an  important  part  in  the  medical  and  pharmaceutical  liter- 
ature of  the  year.  Its  chemistry  and  uses  are  well  described  by  its 
discoverer  in  a  recent  number  of  the  American  Journal  of  Phar- 
macy. 
Agurin. —  A  double  acetate  of  soda  and  theobromine  is  being 
brought  forward  as  a  substitute  for  and  an  improvement  on  diu- 
retin.  It  is  said  to  be  free  from  the  rather  serious  objection  to  the 
latter  compound  of  causing  more  or  less  severe  gastro-intestinal  irri- 
tation. 
Bromocoll. — A  combination  of  bromine,  water  and  gelatine,  said 
to  be  dibromine-tannin-gelatin,  is  claimed  to  have  all  the  sedative 
properties  of  potassium  bromide  without  any  of  its  disagreeable 
secondary  effects.  Mayr  [Deutsch.  Med.  Wochschrf.y  1901)  reports 
using  this  drug  in  cases  of  epilepsy,  with  favorable  results.  Dose, 
2  to  8  grammes  daily. 
Cacodylic  Acid. — The  salts  of  this  compound  of  arsenic  are  not 
increasing  in  popularity.    Several  fatal  cases  of  poisoning  have  been 
