"^""j/nuary^^^iS: }       Denaturing  Bay  Rum  and  Toilet  Waters.  17 
This  is  injected  into  the  gauze  dressings  every  two  or  four  hours 
by  means  of  rubber  tubes  which  are  inserted  when  the  dressing  is 
appHed. 
The  part  where  the  operation  occurred  should  be  kept  quiet, 
elevated  and  warm,  and  there  should  be  no  probing,  squeezing,  or 
introduction  of  tubes.  The  dressings  should  be  changed  daily  and 
the  adjacent  skin  must  be  kept  clean  and  coated  with  a  2  per  cent, 
yellow  mercuric  oxide  ointment. 
Note. — ^The  details  of  this  treatment  and  the  formulas  have  been 
taken  from  a  report  on  the  subject  read  by  Dr.  Babcock  at  the 
recent  meeting  of  the  A.  M.  A.  but  not  yet  published. 
DENATURING  OF  BAY  RUM  AND  TOILET  WATERS. 
By  George  M.  Beringer. 
At  the  conference  in  Washington  on  December  first,  between  the 
Prohibition  Commissioner  and  members  of  the  Technical  Staff 
of  the  Bureau  of  Internal  Revenue  and  the  manufacturers  of  per- 
fumery, toilet  articles  and  barber  supplies,  it  developed  that  the  De- 
partment had  made  up  its  mind  that  bay  rum  and  toilet  waters 
made  with  non-beverage  alcohol  hereafter  must  be  denatured  by 
the  addition  of  some  modifying  substance  that  would  render  these 
toilet  articles  unfit  for  beverage  purposes. 
Chief  Chemist  Adams,  of  the  Bureau,  stated  that  the  Depart- 
ment was  favorably  considering  a  requirement  that  one-fourth 
grain  of  tartar  emetic  must  be  added  to  each  fluid  ounce  of  bay 
rum  and  toilet  waters.  The  opinion  of  the  Department  as  to  the 
feasibility  and  safety  of  the  use  of  tartar  emetic  as  a  denaturing 
substance  was  based  upon  a  few  days'  trial  in  a  way  that  could  not 
be  at  all  considered  as  worthy  of  the  designation  of  a  scientific  in- 
vestigation. No  effort  has  been  made  to  determine  whether  ab- 
sorption followed  the  external  application  of  bay  rum  so  medicated 
or  whether  there  was  any  evidence  of  the  poison  having  entered  the 
system  or  of  its  elimination  through  the  secretions. 
The  technical  experts  present  were  unanimous  in  their  objec- 
tions to  the  use  of  tartar  emetic  and  pointed  out  its  toxic  action  and 
the  danger  of  poisoning  either  through  accidental  or  intentional 
consumption  as  a  beverage.  -  ^ 
It  is  to  be  regretted  that  in  the  face  of  this  information  and^  with 
