AmMa°rch^8h87!'m'}  Minutes  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting .  157 
to  animals  for  a  month,  they  were  more  refractory  to  the  effecs  of  the  tuber- 
cular virus,  it  was  used  in  more  than  fifty  cases  of  tubercu'osis  in  doses  of 
from  two  to  four  grammes  daily.  In  less  than  a  fortnight  half  of  the  patients 
showed  an  increased  weight,  which  continued  during  the  treatment.  In  acute 
tuberculosis,  both  of  the  child  and  the  adult,  the  symptoms  amended,  and  the 
disease  retrograded  in  some  cases  which  had  been  looked  on  as  hopeless. — 
Quart.  Therap.  Rev.,  1887,  p.  9. 
Sulphate  of  Sparteine. — Voigt,  in  the  Wien.  med.  Blcit.,  1886,  jSTos.  25  and  27 
recounts  the  experience  of  the  use  of  this  drug  in  Professor  Nothnagel's  Klinik 
and  confirms  most  of  the  views  of  See  (Am.  Jour.  o/Phar.  1886,  p.  103 1,  Laborde 
and  Legris.  It  stimulates  and  regulates  the  heart,  the  pulse  becomes  stronger, 
and  arterial  tension  is  increased.  It  may  be  used  in  valvular  disease  wThere 
there  is  disturbed  compensation,  or  to  quiet  irregular  action  even  where  the 
compensation  is  fairly  good.  It  may  likewise  be  given  where,  apart  from  val- 
vular disease,  the  heart  muscle  is  weak.  Laborde  and  Legris  advised  f  to  3f 
grains  in  24  hours.  Yoigt  recommends  doses  of  gV  to  ^  of  a  grain  only.  He 
has  known  vertigo,  headache,  palpitation,  ami  nausea  follow  to  ts  of  a 
grain,  but  these  symptoms  are  only  transient,  and  do  not  prevent  the  continu- 
ance of  the  drug.  Sometimes  a  slight  narcotic  action  is  observed.  Sparteine 
acts  quickly.  The  effect  of  one  dose  may  last  twenty -four  hours.  It  is  well  to 
intermit  its  administration  eve,ry  few  days.  The  influence,  though  quickly 
exerted,  is  not  prolonged  enough,  Yoigt  thinks,  to  remove  grave  disturbances 
of  the  compensation.  Repeated  doses  do  not  regulate  the  heart  continuously 
like  digi'alis,  but  it  is  superior  to  caffeine,  adonis  vernalis,  and  convallamerin. 
It  may  be  given  in  combination  with  digitalis. — Med.  Chron.  January,  1887. 
The  Physiological  Action  of  Yanillin. — Grasset  (Arch,  de  pharm.,  Aug., 
1886 ;)  has  f  >und  vanillin  fatal  to  frogs  in  doses  of  from  three-quarters  to  nine- 
tenths  of  a  grain,  but  has  not  ascertained  that  there  is  a  toxic  dose  for  the 
higher  animals.  In  frogs,  it  acts  chiefly  on  the  spinal  cord,  its  action  being 
that  of  strychnine,  but  much  milder.  It  seems  to  delay  putrefactive  fermenta- 
tion. It  is  antagonized  hy  chloral.  Theraoeutically,  it  may  be  used  in  doses 
of  three  quarters  of  a  grain,  as  an  aid  to  digestion,  especially  in  atonic  and 
putrefactive  dyspepsia,  or  as  a  corrigent  of  drugs  which,  like  chloral,  are  not 
well  borne  by  the  stomach ;  also,  in  doses  of  from  three  to  four  grains,  in 
mucilage,  as  an  excito-motor. — JV.  Y.  Med.  Jour.,  January  29,  1887- 
MINUTES  OF  THE  PHARMACEUTAL  MEETING. 
Philadelphia,  February  22d,  1887. 
The  fifth  of  the  present  series  of  Pharmaceutical  meetings  was  held  this 
day  ;  Mr.  Wm,  B.  Webb  being  called  to  preside. 
The  minutes  of  the  last  meeting  were  read,  and  there  being  no  corrections 
to  be  made  they  stand  approved. 
The  actuary  presented  to  the  library  from  Messrs.  Carpenter,  Henszey  & 
Co.,  a  copy  of  the  Medicine  Chest  Dispensatory  published  by  Mr.  G.  W.  Car- 
penter in  1836;  from  the  Publishing  Committee,  the  4th  edition  of  the  Mi- 
croscopist,  by  Dr.  J.  H.  Wythe;  from  the  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference 
