Am.  Tour.  Pharm.  \ 
November,  19 17.  * 
Pharmacologic  Superstitions. 
533 
any  effect  on  the  progress  of  the  malady.  In  the  single  case  in 
which  mercury  was  not  used,  the  patient  was  a  woman  with  a 
syphilitic  ulcer  of  the  nose.  The  author  says  of  the  result,  "  By  the 
use  of  the  decoction  for  fifty  days  inwardly  and  outwardly  applied  as 
before  mentioned,  all  the  sores  healed  up,  some  of  the  bones  threw 
off  exfoliations,  others  covered  up  without  any  sensible  exfoliation, 
she  recovered  her  health  perfectly  with  only  the  loss  of  the  bones  of 
her  nose.''  He  himself  seemed  to  have  had  subconscious  doubts  as 
to  the  efficacy  of  the  treatment,  for  in  reporting  another  case  he 
says,  "But  as  I  durst  not  in  such  a  case  trust  entirely  to  it  (sar- 
saparilla)  I  now  and  then  used  the  mercurial  ointment  to  the  quan- 
tify of  half  an  ounce  of  quicksilver  in  the  whole/'  On  such  a 
slender  thread  of  clinical  evidence  hangs  the  modern  use  of  sarsa- 
parilla  as  an  antisyphilitic ! 
The  only  ingredients  in  sarsaparilla,  aside  from  the  mucilage  it 
contains,  which  could  be  suspected  of  possessing  any  therapeutic 
virtues  are  certain  glucosidal  bodies  related  to  the  saponins.  As 
far  as  has  been  determined,  the  sarsaparilla  saponins  have  no  effect 
on  the  system  which  is  not  common  to  all  of  this  large  group  of 
vegetable  principles,  and  the  only  therapeutic  influence  that  modern 
pharmacology  assigns  to  the  saponins  is  due  to  their  local  irritant 
effect  on  the  mucous  membrane  of  the  stomach.  By  virtue  of  the 
nausea  which  they  produce,  they  may  increase  the  secretions  of  the 
bronchi  and  of  the  skin,  and  are  therefore  used  in  some  quarters  in 
the  treatment  of  acute  bronchitis. 
The  case  for  the  use  of  compound  syrup  of  sarsaparilla  as  an 
antisyphilitic  may  be  summed  up  as  follows :  There  is  absolutely  no 
explanation  of  any  possible  mode  of  action  of  the  drug.  The  clinical 
evidence  of  the  usefulness  of  sarsaparilla  is  both  scantv  and  unre- 
liable. Such  testimony  of  beneficial  action  as  does  exist  is  based  on 
the  use  of  doses  of  from  2  to  4  ounces  of  sarsaparilla  a  day;  this 
would  be  equivalent  to  about  5  fluidounces  of  the  syrup  three  times 
a  day.  Therefore,  in  the  dose  ordinarily  employed,  there  is  not  the 
slightest  reason  to  suspect  that  the  compound  syrup  of  sarsaparilla 
can  have  any  effect  on  the  syphilitic  process.  As  a  vehicle  it  is  an 
illogical  jumble. 
Basham's  Mixture. 
I  have  no  statistics  to  determine  the  number  of  physicians  who 
believe  that  Basham's  mixture  is  a  sort  of  specific  for  B right's  dis- 
