EXTRACT  OF  MALE  FERN. 
from  numerous  correct  and  unexceptionable  analyses,  and  final- 
ly crowned  all  by  planning  a  general  process  for  the  estimation 
of  all  matters  containing  alkaloids. * — Ohem.  Neivs  from  Journal 
de  Pharmacie  et  de  Ohimie,  xliii.,  49,  63. 
EXTRACT  OF  MALE  FERN. 
By  W.  E.  Bowman,  M.  D. 
The  ethereal  extract  is  the  preparation  of  male  fern  usually 
employed  for  the  expulsion  of  tape  worm;  and  is  the  only  one 
given  in  the  new  Pharmacopoeia.  It  w,  as  often  styled,  the  oil 
of  male  fern  ;  and  is  made  by  exhausting  the  root,  by  percola- 
tion with  ether,  which  is  afterwards  distilled  off,  leaving  a  dark, 
oily  liquid  of  the  consistence  of  treacle.  We  have  always  been 
very  successful  with  this  extract,  and  generally  prescribe  for 
our  patient  two  one  drachm  doses ;  directing  the  first  to  be 
taken  in  syrup  or  mucilage  after  a  day's  fast,  and  the  second 
in  three  hours,  with  an  ounce  of  castor  oil.  And  if,  on  thorough 
search,  the  head  cannot  be  discovered  to  have  passed  away 
with  the  evacuations,  nothing  but  a  little  gruel  is  allowed,  and 
the  dose  with  the  oil  is  repeated  the  next  morning. 
Beale  in  his  work  on  the  Microscope  (p.  360)  directs  from 
two  to  four  drachms  as  a  dose ;  Pareira  (qV)  says  from  30  m.  to 
a  drachm  ;  whilst  Christison  (496)  gives  but  18  m.  at  night, 
and  a  similar  dose  in  the  morning. 
We  have  been  led  to  this  subject  on  reading  some  excellent 
remarks  in  the  British  Medical  Journal,  of  the  9th  of  April,  by 
Dr.  J.  D.  Kendle,  of  Brixton,  Surrey,  which  we  here  subjoin. 
It  will  be  perceived  that  his  mode  does  away  with  the  most 
t  0         objectionable  part  of  our  treatment,  namely,  the  fasting. 
"  In  every  case  of  tape- worm  which  I  have  treated  for  the 
last  three  years,  the  mode  of  preparing  the  patient,  the  dose  of 
the  male -fern,  and  the  way  in  which  it  was  given,  have  been 
the  same ;  all  of  which  I  will  now  briefly  describe.  The  patient 
is  sent  to  the  infirmary,  and  late  in  the  evening  on  the  day  of 
[*  M.  Yalser  does  not  notice  the  paper  of  Prof.  F.  F.  Mayer,  published 
in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Amer.  Pharm.  Assoc.,  1862,  nor  the  extension 
of  it  in  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  for  January,  1863,  where  this 
process  is  practically  applied  by  Prof.  Mayer,  in  testing  the  preparations 
of  Belladonna,  Aconite  and  Stramonium;  etc. — Ed.  Am.  Jouk.  Pharm.] 
