396 
Carrel-Dakin  Solution. 
/  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
<•    September,  1917. 
server  would  try  to  distinguish  them  by  their  effects.  Here  again, 
if  one  drug  is  really  superior  or  otherwise  different  from  another, 
to  a  practical  important  extent,  the  observer  will  surely  be  able  to 
make  the  distinction. 
This  method  is  really  the  only  one  that  avoids  the  pitfalls  of 
clinical  observation ;  it  is  the  only  method  that  makes  the  results 
purely  objective,  really  independent  of  the  bias  of  the  observer  and 
the  patient.  It  is  the  only  method,  therefore,  which  determines 
whether  it  was  really  the  pudding  that  was  eaten  and  not  some  other 
dessert. 
In  principle  this  method  does  not  usually  offer  any  very  great 
difficulties.  It  is,  of  course,  necessary  that  the  two  preparations  to 
be  compared  shall  resemble  each  other  so  closely  or  shall  be  flavored, 
etc.,  so  that  they  cannot  be  distinguished  by  their  physical  prop- 
erties. This  is  usually  not  a  very  difficult  matter.  The  method 
does  not  jeopardize  the  interests  of  the  patient,  for  it  is  understood 
that  no  drug  would  be  tested  in  this  way  unless  there  is  some 
reason  to  believe  that  it  has  a  value.  When  the  patient's  condition 
is  such  as  to  demand  treatment,  then  he  would  be  receiving  either 
the  standard  drug  or  the  drug  which  the  experimenter  believes  may 
be  superior  to  the  standard. 
Conclusions. 
The  final  and  crucial  test  of  a  remedy  is  on  the  patient;  but  the 
test  must  be  framed  so  as  to  make  it  really  crucial.  Most  clinical 
therapeutic  evidence  falls  far  short  of  this.  The  "blind  test"  is 
urged  to  meet  the  deficiencies. 
CARREL-DAKIN  SOLUTION.1 
By  John  K.  Thum. 
It  was  while  working  on  native  black  oxide  of  manganese,  which 
chemical  investigators  before  Scheele  had  studied  more  or  less  un- 
successfully, that  he  discovered  in  short  order  four  new  substances 
— chlorine,  oxygen,  manganese  and  baryta — and  of  these  four,  the 
first  two  have  undoubtedly  been  of  the  utmost  importance  for  the 
1  Reprinted  from  the  Journal  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Associa- 
tion, Vol.  VI,  No.  5,  May,  191 7. 
