124     Advances  in  Materia  Medica  and  Pharmacy.     {  Amj^r3i'  i^""' 
tion  of  7  to  1,000  up  to  9  to  1,000  seems  to  completely  arrest  peptic 
activity.  Further  work  along  the  last  statement  of  results  obtained 
would  be  of  value.    (Arch.  Intern.  Med.,  Chem.  Abstr.,  1916,  10, 
2585.) 
The  Atomic  Weight  of  Lead. — This  determination  was  made 
from  lead  oxide  prepared  from  pure  lead  nitrate,  and  the  result 
showed  that  the  atomic  weight  of  the  metal  is  206.98.  In  1904,  the 
International  Commission  adopted  206.9  as  the  atomic  weight.  The 
experimenters  also  determined  the  weight  of  lead  extracted  from 
uraniferous  minerals.  Getting  rid  as  far  as  possible  of  any  lead 
which  was  not  of  radio-active  origin,  they  found  the  atomic  weight 
of  radio-active  lead  to  be  206.71,  which  is  close  to  that  found  by 
Honigschmidt  and  Horowitz.    (Compt.  rend.,  1916,  163,  514.) 
Fraudulent  Drug  Traffic  Checked. — Fraudulent  traffic  in  imita- 
tions of  certain  synthetic  drugs  used  by  physicians  has  been  checked 
by  the  joint  action  of  federal,  state,  and  municipal  officials,  accord- 
ing to  the  report  of  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry,  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture.  Because  of  the  high  prices 
demanded  for  such  drugs,  cheap  imitations,  with  little  or  none  of  the 
therapeutic  properties  of  the  genuine,  have  been  put  on  the  market 
under  the  names  and  labels  of  the  real  drugs.  Shipments  were 
seized,  and  a  number  of  individuals  were  prosecuted  successfully, 
under  the  Federal  Food  and  Drugs  Act,  and  indictments  were  pro- 
cured under  the  postal  laws,  but  the  traffic  could  not  be  wholly  sup- 
pressed under  the  federal  laws,  nor  could  all  offenders  be  reached. 
The  department  of  agriculture  thereupon  laid  the  matter  before  the 
state  and  municipal  officials,  with  the  result  that  many  prosecutions 
were  instituted  and  seizures  made  by  them.  Ultimately,  through 
joint  action,  the  traffic  was  suppressed.  (Jour.  A.  M.  A.,  Jan.  13, 
1917,  p.  130.) 
No  Importation  of  (<  Patent  Medicines"  Permitted  Into  Ger- 
many.— According  to  the  Munchener  Medizinische  Wochenschrift 
the  Imperial  Government  has  issued  an  order  to  the  effect  that  no 
unnecessary  articles  will  be  permitted  to  be  brought  into  the  country, 
and  among  other  things,  this  prohibition  applies  to  proprietary  medi- 
cines. This  order  applies  until  further  notice.  It  seems  like  very 
gentle  irony,  indeed,  when  the  country  that  manufactures  more 
patent  medicines  than  any  other,  is  forced  by  its  government  to  go 
on  record  that  this  class  of  products  is  "  unnecessary ! "  (Jour. 
A.  M.  A.,  Jan.  13,  1917,  p.  130.) 
