568    "  Current  Literature.  | Am-  'w.  ite 
^  \   December,  1914. 
"  Any  pharmacist  can  obtain  digitalis  without  paying  an  ex- 
orbitant price  for  it,  and  he  can  make  a  tincture  equal  to  the  best, 
and  quite  as  useful  therapeutically  as  any  of  the  proprietary  prep- 
arations. 
"  The  tincture  represents  all  of  the  activities  of  the  leaf ;  so  does 
the  infusion  when  properly  made  from  leaf  in  No.  60  powder,  and 
these  two  preparations  have  an  identical  action  in  corresponding 
doses. 
"  The  fat-free  tincture  has  no  advantages  over  the  official  tinc- 
ture. 
"  The  determination  of  the  digitoxin  content  of  the  leaf  affords 
no  index  of  the  therapeutic  or  pharmacologic  activity  of  the  drug, 
but  the  therapeutic  activity  may  vary  in  the  same  direction  as  the 
digitoxin. 
"  No  test  for  digitalis,  chemical  or  biologic,  is  satisfactory,  but 
the  one-hour  frog  method  is  probably  best  suited  to  the  general  needs 
of  the  pharmacist,  and  this  will  probably  be  admitted  to  the  ninth 
edition  of  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia. 
"  The  dose  of  digitalis  cannot  be  expressed  in  fixed  terms,  be- 
cause it  varies  widely  with  the  frequency  of  repetition,  the  length  of 
time  during  which  it  is  intended  to  be  taken,  and  dependent  upon 
whether  the  patient  has  recently  had  similar  medication.  It  is  prob- 
ably safe  to  say  that  not  more  than  45  grains  of  the  leaf  or  a 
fluidounce  of  the  tincture  should  be  administered  to  a  patient  within 
a  period  of  one  week,  and  such  an  amount  only  under  the  immediate 
observation  of  a  trained  clinician,  and  such  an  amount  could  not  be 
given  safely  immediately  after  medication  with  digitalis  or  syner- 
gistic drugs."   The  Druggists  Circular,  October,  1914,  p.  607. 
J.  K.T. 
NEWS  ITEM 
Dr.  Frederick  B.  Power  will  retire  from  the  directorship  of  the 
Wellcome  Chemical  Research  Laboratories  on  the  first  of  December 
in  order  to  return  to  the  United  States  where,  for  family  reasons, 
he  will  make  his  future  home,  at  535  Warren  Street,  Hudson,  New 
York. 
The  high  character  of  the  research  work  carried  out  in  these 
Laboratories  under  the  immediate  direction  of  Dr.  Power  stands 
without  a  parallel  in  his  department  of  science.  It  has  been  truly 
said  that  Dr.  Power  has,  during  the  period  of  his  administration, 
inaugurated  a  new  era  in  his  field  of  research  in  England. 
