472  Vinum  Digest ivum.  {AmbJcr,r;8P78arm' 
ounces  of  acidulated  water,  it  will  dissolve  three  or  four  times  as  much 
albumen  as  is  claimed  for  it. 
Ten  grains  of  Scheffer's  saccharated  pepsin,  for  which  I  claim,  when 
dissolved  in  I  ounce  of  acidulated  water,  the  strength  of  digesting,  as 
minimum,  150  grains  of  coagulated  albumen,  will,  when  dissolved  in 
5  fluidounces  of  acidulated  water,  easily  digest  500  out  of  600  grains  of 
albumen. 
When,  therefore,  the  allusion  to  Scheffer's  liquid  pepsin  in  the 
advertisement  of  Wm.  Procter,  Jr.,  Co.  is  not  made  by  ignorance,, 
it  is  made  in  a  very  unfair  spirit,  which  stamps  it  to  a  dishonorable  act. 
E.  SCHEFFER. 
Louisville,  September,  1878. 
VINUM  DIGESTIVUM. 
In  our  advertisement  of  this  preparation  in  the  September  number  of 
this  journal  there  occurs  a  sentence  which,  to  our  great  regret,  has 
been  construed  by  Professor  Scheffer  in  a  manner  totally  different  from 
the  meaning  intended  to  be  conveyed  by  it.  That,  when  testing  pepsin, 
an  increased  quantity  of  acidulated  water  would  determine  the  solution 
of  larger  quantities  of  albumen  was  well  known  to  us,  as  was  also  the 
fact  of  the  retardation  of  the  process  in  the  presence  of  alcohol.  The 
addition  of  a  larger  proportion  of  water  was  justified  "by  the  presence  of 
the  vinous  ingredient  ;  so  our  test  for  Vinum  digestivum  was  based  on 
this,  together  with  the  desire  to  imitate  the  natural  function  of  diges- 
tion in  the  amount  of  dilution,  acidity,  etc.,  employed. 
The  term  "Liquid  Pepsin  of  Scheffer"  was  used  only  in  a  generic 
sense,  as  applying  to  that  preparation  as  made  by  ourselves  and  by 
hundreds  of  apothecaries,  and  not  alone  to  the  article  as  furnished  from 
the  laboratory  of  the  originator. 
Our  reference  to  this  was  wholly  without  intention  to  detract  from 
the  merits  of  his  article  ;  for,  while  we  departed  from  the  standard 
established  for  liquid  pepsin,  we  used  its  value  as  a  measure  of  the  com- 
parative strength  of  our  preparation,  and  in  this  sense  only  was  the 
reference  made. 
The  extraordinary  solvent  power  of  Vinum  digestivum  was  quite  as 
great  a  surprise  to  us  when  ascertained  as  it  possibly  could  be  to  others 
— the  difference  in  manipulation  was  the  only  clue  to  the  great  improve- 
