128 
Fixation  of  Prices. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1     February,  1920. 
the  urine  promptly  increases.  For  example,  a  person  who  had 
taken  So  Gm.  of  pure  methyl  alcohol  in  the  course  of  eight  days 
showed  an  extra  elimination  of  formic  acid  above  his  usual  output 
equivalent  to  5  per  cent,  or  more  of  the  consumed  spirits.  It  will 
be  observed  that  even  when  these  relatively  innocuous  doses  were 
taken,  a  quantitative  investigation  betrayed  the  intake.  With  larger 
doses,  methyl  alcohol  itself,  which  is  missed  in  such  instances  as 
that  just  cited,  may  appear  in  the  urine.  Other  alleged  precursors 
of  formic  acid,  such  as  glucose,  and  lactic  acid  which  might  readily 
be  taken  into  the  body  in  exceptionally  large  quantities  in  the  course 
of  an  ordinary  regimen,  were  found  by  Autenrieth  to  be  without 
appreciable  influence  on  the  output.  Formaldehyde,  HCOH,  did 
not  produce  an  increment;  but  formic  acid  itself  w^as  quite  resistant 
to  oxidation  in  the  body,  so  that  unlike  many  other  organic  acids  it 
again  reappeared  in  the  urine  in  considerable  proportions  unchanged. 
Fortified  with  these  facts,  the  chemist  will  be  better  prepared  to 
ascertain  the  occurrence  of  poisoning  with  wood  alcohol  when  the 
direct  evidence  may  be  lacking  or  inconclusive.  At  the  present 
juncture  the  public  should  be  made  to  appreciate  that  methyl 
alcohol  is  a  dangerous  poison ;  that  one  of  its  serious  effects  is  perma- 
nent blindness,  and  that  it  may  be  so  prepared  as  to  be  ordinarily 
indistinguishable  by  odor  or  taste  from  ethyl  alcohol.  It  should 
be  emphasized  that  the  selling  or  promoting  the  sale  of  or  use  of 
either  methyl  or  ethyl  alcohol  as  a  beverage  is  the  doing  of  an  un- 
law^ful  act. 
FIXATION  OF  PRICES  NO  NEW  THING.  ^ 
Mr.  Iv.  Zions,  Secretary  of  the  P.  A.  T.  A.  of  New  South  Wales, 
sends  us  the  following  extract  from  a  magazine  in  his  library.  It  is 
particularly  apposite  at  the  present  time,  in  view  of  the  world- 
wide endeavor  to  reduce  prices  through  the  instrumentality  of 
government  regulations. 
The  article  was  written  by  the  late  Elbert  Hubbard,  and  ap- 
peared in  the  American  Era  magazine  of  April,  19 14.  Mr.  Hub- 
bard had  just  been  reading  a  book,  entitled  "The  Common  People 
of  Ancient  Rome,"  by  Professor  F.  F.  Abbott.  In  his  own  inimita- 
ble style  he  reviews  the  book  under  the  title  of 
^  From  The  Australian  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  Nov.  20,  1919. 
