224  * 
Varieties. 
f  Am.  Jodr.  Pharm. 
1     May  1, 1872. 
States,  by  persons  ignorant  of  its  effects,  must  send  its  thousands, 
any  reasonable  person  will  be  inclined  to  grant.  But  a  still  graver 
question  presents  itself,  namely  :  How  much  of  the  physical  disease, 
of  the  drunkenness,  of  the  degradation  and  of  the  vice,  and  how  many 
of  the  weakened  intellects,  are  due  to  the  use  of  the  soothing  syrup 
in  infancy  ?  Probably  enough  to  make  it  a  wiser  Legislature  that  will 
prohibit  the  manufacture  of  any  nostrum  for  children  which  contains 
opium,  than  the  Legislature  that  passes  a  prohibitory  liquor  law  for 
the  benefit  of  its  adults. — Pacific  Med.  and  Surg.  Journ  1872,  Apr. 
tJarictics. 
The  Pharmacopoeia  of  1870. — In  anticipation  of  the  approach  of  another 
course  of  instruction  in  the  Colleges  of  Pharmacy  and  of  Medicine  it  is 
exceedingly  desirable  that  we  should  have  the  revised  Pharmacopoeia.  There 
will  probably  be  ten  schools  of  pharmacy  in  operation  next  winter,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  still  more  numerous  medical  colleges,  in  every  one  of  which  the 
instructions  in  chemistry,  materia  medica  and  pharmacy  are  largely  influenced 
by  the  national  standard.  Now,  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  hundreds  of 
young  men  who  will  complete  their  college  course  next  spring  will  all  have  to 
unlearn  some  portion  of  their  instructions,  and  will,  in  fact,  almost  from  the 
time  of  their  issuing  from  the  colleges,  be  behind  the  times  in  regard  to  some  of 
the  officinal  processes,  the  corrected  nomenclature,  and  other  things  which 
enter  into  the  decennial  revision,  we  think  no  one  can  fail  to  recognise  the 
importance  of  the  work  being  put  into  print.  It  is  well  known  that  the  labors 
of  the  Committee  have  been  so  far  completed  that  the  revised  work  is  already 
engrossed  for  the  printer,  and,  with  great  respect  and  deference  to  the  Com- 
mittee who  have  spent  so  much  labor  upon  it,  I  will  close  with  the  inquiry, 
which  is  heard  from  all  quarters  :  When  will  the  Pharmacopoeia  be  issued? 
Edward  Parrish. 
Dextrin.— The  Polytechnisches  Journal  recommends  the  preparation  of  dex- 
trin by  mixing  500  parts  potato  starch,  1500  parts  cold  distilled  water,  and  8 
parts  pure  oxalic  acid  in  a  vessel  on  a  water-bath,  and  heating  till  the  mixture 
does  not  show  the  starch  reaction  when  tested  with  iodine.  When  this  point  is 
reached  the  vessel  is  removed  from  the  water-bath,  and  the  liquid  neutralized 
with  pure  carbonate  of  lime.  Having  stood  for  two  days,  the  liquid  should  be 
filtered,  and  the  filtrate  evaporated  on  a  water-bath  till  it  becomes  of  a  pasty 
consistency.  It  can  then  be  removed  with  a  knife  and  dried  into  a  cake  in  a 
warm  place.  Two  hundred  and  twenty  parts  of  pure  dextrin  are  thus  obtained. 
— Scientific  American,  April  20,  1872. 
