252 
Gleanings  in  Materia  Medica. 
/  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I.      May,  1882. 
apparent  for  8  or  10  hours;  then  a  gradual  disinclination  to  move  super- 
vened, which  slowly  increased  until  the  animal  was  unable  to  move ; 
the  respiration  became  shallower,  the  animal  remained  on  its  side  and 
slowly  died.  No  convulsive  movements,  diarrhoea  or  vomiting  were 
observed. 
h.  The  extract  made  with  boiling  alcohol  was  inert. 
c.  The  residue,  extracted  with  boiling  alcohol,  had  no  effect. 
d.  Abric  acid  and  ammonium  abrate  are  inert. 
e.  Neither  the  aqueous  distillate  of  the  seeds,  nor  the  residue  left  in 
the  retort,  produced  any  symptoms. 
/.  The  extract  made  with  cold  alcohol,  by  spontaneous  evaporation, 
produced  no  effects. 
g.  The  etherial  extract  produced  fatal  effects  with  the  usual  symp- 
toms ;  in  a  second  experiment  no  effects  were  produced. 
It  would  appear  that  the  temperature  of  100°C.  destroys  the 
activity  of  the  poison. —  Chemists'  Jour,,  March  3  ;  Drug  Reporter. 
Oxalis  acetosella. — Dr.  Edgar  Eltinge  reports  in  the  "Annals  of 
Anatomy  and  Surgery,^^  that  the  expressed  inspissated  juice  of  this 
plant,  properly  formed  into  a  suitable  paste,  has  been  successfully  used 
by  him  as  a  local  application  in  the  removal  of  an  epithelioma  of  the 
lip,  after  no  especial  good  had  resulted  from  the  use  of  Canquoin^s 
zinc  chloride  paste  which  had  produced  excessive  hemorrhage.  Three 
successive  applications  of  the  wood-sorrel  paste,  made  at  intervals  of 
twelve  hours  each,  were  entirely  sufficient  to  destroy  the  growth,  the 
resulting  eschar  separating  on  the  eighth  day,  leaving  a  healthy  granu- 
lating surface,  which  healed  rapidly.  Not  a  drop  of  blood  issued 
throughout,  and  at  the  end  of  two  years  there  were  no  signs  of  recur- 
rence. The  pain  produced  by  the  application  of  the  caustic  was 
intense,  demanding  all  the  patient's  fortitude  to  enable  him  to  endure 
it ;  however,  the  duration  did  not  exceed  half  an  hour  after  each 
application. 
Pure  Olive  Oil,  nine  parts,  gently  warmed  with  1  part  of  nitric 
acid,  sp.  gr.  1*42,  and  then  agitated  until  cold,  yields,  according  to  Con- 
roy,  in  the  course  of  one  or  two  hours  a  straw-yellow  solid  mass,  while 
the  oils  of  cotton-seed  and  other  seeds  become  deep  orange  colored  and 
do  not  acquire  the  solid  consistence  of  olive  oil ;  five  per  cent,  of  seed- 
oils  may  thus  be  detected. — Journ.  de  Med.-,  Zeits.  Oest.  Ap.  Fer., 
1882,  p.  20. 
