Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
February,  1914.  / 
U.  S.  P.  1900  Menstrua. 
59 
of  Pharmacy  1  a  mistake  was  certainly  made  in  adopting  for  the 
preparation  of  F.  E.  Squill,  U.  S.  P.,  8th  Rev.,  a  menstruum  com- 
posed of  a  10  per  cent,  solution  of  Acetic  Acid.  This  is  so  far  from 
being  ideal  for  extracting  the  active  substances  from  Squill  bulb  that 
it  is  practically  impossible  to  prepare  an  extract  representing  the 
activity  of  the  crude  drug. 
Comparison  of  the  activity  of  F.  E.  Squill,  U.  S.  P.,  1890  and  1900, 
was  made  by  Houghton  4  as  follows : 
"  Comparative  Strength  of  Fluid  Extract  of  Squill  Prepared  from 
the  Same  Lot  of  Drug  According  to  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia 
of  1890  and  1900: 
"  1  U.S. P.,  1890,  140  per  cent,  as  active  as  standard  fluid  extract. 
"  2  U.S. P.,  1890,  140  per  cent,  as  active  as  standard  fluid  extract. 
"3  U.S. P.,  1900,  60  per  cent,  as  active  as  standard  fluid  extract. 
"4  U.S. P.,  1900,  60  per  cent,  as  active  as  standard  fluid  extract. 
"  It  may  be  observed  that  activity  of  both  products  is  high  as  com- 
pared with  the  results  given  in  Table  2.  This  probably  is  due  to 
the  great  care  exercised  completely  to  exhaust  the  drug  and  to  the 
high  quality  of  the  drug. 
"  In  order  to  meet  any  objections  that  might  be  offered  against 
the  results  as  shown  by  the  special  method  of  assay  employed,  the 
work  was  checked  by  experiments  on  dogs  showing  the  comparative 
activity  of  the  two  products  in  producing  changes  in  the  blood-pres- 
sure, which  is  perhaps  the  most  characteristic  physiologic  action  of 
the  members  of  the  digitalis  series/' 
The  results  of  the  latter  experiments  are  here  recorded  in  tabular 
form  for  more  convenient  reference. 
Experiment  I. 
F.  E.  Squill,  U.  S.  P.,  1890.         F.  E.  Squill,  U.  S.  P.,  1900. 
Before  After 
injection.  injection.  Before.  After. 
Pulse  Rate   100  96  116  138 
Blood-pressure    46  54  48  45 
In  this  experiment  0.3  c.c.  F.  E.  Squill,  U.  S.  P.,  1890,  was  injected 
at  10.45  A-M-  in*0  the  femoral  vein  of  an  anaesthetized  dog.  Then 
at  2.41  p.m.,  when  the  effect  of  the  first  injection  had  passed,  the 
same  amount  of  F.  E.  Squill,  U.  S.  P.,  1900,  was  injected. 
In  the  second  experiment  the  order  of  injection  was  reversed  an- 
other dog  being  used  for  the  test,  and  the  same  amount  of  each 
preparation  injected. 
