Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1914. 
Current  Literature. 
225 
tfre  statutes  of  prohibition  become  not  only  inefficient,  but  most  use- 
less. If  what  is  prohibited  within  a  drug  store  is  permitted  in  a 
physician's  dispensary,  the  law  likewise  becomes  measurably  inop- 
erative as  far  as  the  public  is  concerned." 
He  makes  the  statement  that  such  conditions  exist  and  that  in 
some  of  the  different  states  the  evil  has  been  exposed.  He  quotes 
Mr.  Roemer,  who,  at  a  meeting  of  the  New  York  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  made  the  announcement  that  an  investigation  of  some 
of  the  medicines  dispensed  by  physicians  showed  a  sad  state  of 
affairs ;  heroin  tablets  containing  no  heroin,  morphine  tablets  with- 
out morphine,  and  elixir  of  terpin  hydrate  in  which  the  terpin  hydrate 
was  conspicuous  by  its  absence ! 
Mr.  Sayre  believes  that  the  interest  of  the  public  could  be  safe- 
guarded by  the  state  laws  requiring  all  medicine  dispensed  by  phy- 
sicians to  bona  fide  patients  to  conform  to  legal  standards,  and,  fur- 
ther, that  any  place  where  drugs  are  compounded,  dispensed,  or  sold 
should  be  amenable  to  official  inspection. 
If  dispensing  by  medical  men  has  resulted  in  conditions  which 
are  prejudicial  to  the  public  health — and  from  this  standpoint  alone 
should  the  question  be  viewed — then  legislative  regulation  must, 
and  no  doubt  will,  be  undertaken  by  the  various  states.  This  ques- 
tion is  beginning  to  loom  up  as  never  before  and  must  be  settled 
sooner  or  later.  It  probably  would  be  a  good  plan  if  the  various 
state  medical  and  pharmaceutical  societies  at  their  coming  meetings 
for  the  year  were  to  take  hold  and  thresh  this  matter  thoroughly  and 
formulate  some  definite  opinion  upon  the  whole  subject. 
John  K.  Thum. 
Chemical  Examination  of  Dicoma  Anomala.  By  Frank 
Tutin  and  William  J.  S.  Naunton.  The  Wellcome  Chemical  Re- 
search Laboratories,  London. 
The  material  employed  for  this  investigation  consisted  of  the 
entire  air-dried  plant  of  Dicoma  anomala,  Sond.,  obtained  from 
South  Africa. 
An  alcoholic  extract  of  the  plant,  distilled  in  a  current  of  steam, 
yielded  a  small  amount  of  an  essential  oil.  The  portion  of  the  ex- 
tract which'was  soluble  in  water  yielded  a  small  amount  of  a  colorless 
crystalline  glucoside,  and  a  large  amount  of  a  yellow  amorphous 
product,  which,  on  hydrolysis  with  alkali,  gave  3 : 4-  dihydroxycin- 
