66  Biological  Standardisation.         {^bruSy  ^9^7™' 
tract,  fluid  extract  or  tincture  form,  while  in  fact  the  statement  "  A 
standard  fluid  extract  will  produce  incoordination  when  administered 
to  dogs  in  the  dose  of  0.03  mil,  the  extract  in  the  dose  of  0.004  Gm., 
the  tincture  in  the  dose  of  0.3  mil  for  each  kilogram  of  body  weight 
of  dogs,"  gives  one  no  option  in  dosing,  and  practically  makes  a 
test  of  the  standard  unnecessary.  The  effective  dose  of  each  is  pre- 
scribed without  any  opportunity  of  varying  it  to  adjust  for  a  lower 
susceptibility  of  the  test  animal.  If  the  method  provided  for  this 
contingency,  it  would  be  logical  to  compare  sample  with  standard  in 
every  case  and  to  eliminate  every  possible  cause  for  unequal  effects. 
Further  criticisms  of  this  test  of  cannabis  preparations  are  that 
the  drug,  while  intoxicating  in  a  sense  is  not  known  to  be  fatal  in  a 
relatively  immense  dose  and  consequently  is  not  a  dangerous  drug; 
and  that  it  has  no  very  extended  application  in  human  therapy.  It 
therefore  scarcely  deserves  so  much  attention  especially  when  the 
extra  refinements  of  testing  suggested  add  so  little  to  uniformity  in 
the  activity  of  its  extracts  and  so  much  to  the  cost  of  standardizing. 
Suprarenal  Gland. 
The  biologic  assay  of  products  of  the  suprarenal  gland  is  open 
to  criticism  in  only  two  particulars,  namely,  in  the  method  of 
measuring  and  administering  the  doses  and  in  attempting  to  check 
the  results  as  described. 
Using  both  femoral  veins  for  injecting  sample  and  standard  al- 
ternately is  probably  intended  to  obviate  the  possible  mixing  of  the 
two  solutions  if  both  are  injected  into  the  same  vein.  But  it  intro- 
duces a  very  much  greater  source  of  error.  The  amount  injected 
can  much  more  easily  be  measured  by  use  of  a  pipette  than  in  a 
syringe,  and  the  dose  after  being  injected  can  be  easily  and  com- 
pletely washed  into  the  blood  stream  by  a  follow-up  injection  of  2 
mil  (Cc.)  physiological  salt  solution.  When  this  procedure  is  fol- 
lowed, no  mixing  of  two  injections  is  possible. 
By  the  U.  S.  P.  method  it  is  difficult  to  measure  accurately  small 
differences  in  the  dose,  and  impossible  to  insure  that  the  entire  dose 
enters  the  blood  stream.  The  small  part  remaining  in  the  dead 
space  of  the  vein  seems  to  be  destroyed,  because  doses  administered 
by  the  U.  S.  P.  procedure  are  invariably  less  effective  than  when  im- 
mediately and  completely  carried  into  the  blood  stream  by  the 
method  suggested  above. 
