Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
January,  19 18. 
Treatment  of  Corks. 
51 
to  the  beauty  or  the  importance  of  happenings  which  do  not  show 
on  the  surface  their  direct  application  to  everyday  affairs.  Yet  even 
a  brief  consideration  of  the  fundamentals  of  such  modern  necessi- 
ties as  the  dynamo,  the  wireless,  the  coal  tar  dyes  or  the  antiseptics, 
will  carry  us  back  to  the  little  heralded  research  of  some  quiet  in- 
vestigation in  a  modest  laboratory.  In  a  spirit  of  dutiful  recogni- 
tion of  important  contributions  of  this  sort  we  cannot  refrain  from 
reference  to  a  series  of  investigations  on  the  chemical  structure  of 
the  nucleic  acids,  culminating  in  recent  papers  from  the  laboratory 
of  physiologic  chemistry  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  University.  To  the 
biologist  the  nucleic  acids  are  familiar  as  integral  components  of 
every  nucleated  cell  in  living  beings ;  to  the  physician  they  further 
recall  the  purins,  which  play  a  part  in  the  genesis  of  uric  acid.  Re- 
cent studies  have  definitely  indicated  that  there  are  two  distinct 
types  of  nucleic  acids,  one  of  which  is  found  in  animal  tissues  and 
the  other  in  plants.  Our  knowledge  of  plant  nucleic  acids  has  been 
acquired  from  the  study  of  products  from  two  sources ;  the  wheat 
embryo  and  yeast.  It  has  now  been  ascertained  that  these  plant 
nucleic  acids  are  probably  identical.  They  are  composed  of  four 
mononucleotids  (compounds  of  a  nitrogenous  substance  either  a 
purin  or  a  pyrimidin,  a  carbohydrate  and  phosphoric  acid)  joined 
together  through  their  carbohydrate  groups.  The  details  of  such 
chemical  structure  would  probably  interest  most  of  our  readers  as 
little  as  the  intricacies  of  modern  experimentation  in  the  science  of 
immunology  on  which  much  useful  serum  therapy  has  been  based. 
No  one  will  gainsay,  however,  that  the  unraveling  of  the  structure 
of  a  compound  represented  by  the  empiric  formula  C38H35N15029P4 
is  no  mean  accomplishment.  And  to  associate  this  splendid  labor 
largely  with  the  names  of  American  investigators — Osborne, 
Wheeler,  Johnson,  Levene,  Jacobs,  Jones  and  others — lends  a  na- 
tional pride  to  the  accomplishment.  (The  Journal  of  the  American 
Medical  Association.) 
Dandelion  Root  Adulterant. — Examination  of  samples  of 
importations  of  "  dandelion  root,"  Taraxacum  officinale  Weber,  has 
disclosed  that  in  some  instances  roots  obtained  from  a  Lactuca 
species,  very  probably  Lactuca  canadensis  L.,  or  Lactuca  spicata 
(Lam.)  Hitche.,  have  been  substituted  for  the  true  material.  The 
root  of  Taraxacum  officinale  may  be  distinguished  by  the  concen- 
