274 
Current  Literature. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1920. 
they  should  be  thoroughly  cooked,  though  it  is  true  that  cooking 
sometimes  fails  to  protect.  As  a  rule,  B.  hotuUnus  is  found  only  in 
food  carelessly  preserved  or  stored  in  too  warm  a  place.  Bitter 
knows  of  only  one  instance  in  which  B.  hotulinus  has  been  isolated 
from  other  than  damaged  foods.  Kempner  and  Pollock  succeeded 
in  isolating  B.  hotulinus  from  the  feces  of  pigs.  (From  Deutsche 
mediziniscke  Wochenschrift,  Berlin,  45:  No.  47  (Nov.  20,  1919); 
through  Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Assoc.,  Mar.  27,  1920.) 
Micro- AnaIvYSIS  of  the  B1.00D. — Feigl  suggests  other  lines 
in  which  Bang's  micromethod  can  be  instructively  applied,  with 
slight  modifications,  as  in  Ljungdahl's  research  on  volatile  substances 
in  the  blood.  The  latter  uses  capillary  tubes  for  the  weighing  pro- 
cedure, instead  of  Bang's  paper,  for  determination  of  the  acetone 
in  the  blood.  This  capillary  technic  has  a  certain  number  of  ad- 
vantages for  research  of  different  kinds  in  this  line,  especially  for 
analysis  of  lipoids.  Instead  of  Bang's  paper,  Feigl  uses  asbestos 
fibers.  They  take  up  the  blood  as  well  as  the  paper,  and  allow 
estimation  of  the  ash  and  even  of  its  separate  elements.  Extremely 
small  quartz  beakers  with  platinum  loops,  and  platinum  iridium 
beakers — eventually  filled  with  loose  quartz — also  answer  the  same 
purpose.  Another  field  for  research  is  with  microcolorimetry. 
Feigl  has  succeeded  in  this  way  with  extracts  from  as  little  as  200 
Mg.  of  blood.  Determination  of  cholesterol  is  possible  also  with 
this  technic.  Picric  acid  reduction  of  sugar  is  another  progress.  In 
short,  he  concludes,  "the  reactive  instrumental  and  theoretical 
possibilities  of  colorimetry  and  the  wonderful  nephelometric  find- 
ings open  prospects  of  applying  Bang's  fundamental  principle  in 
untried  fields  which  promise  great  progress."  (Nephelometry  is 
the  method  of  analysis  by  measuring  the  brightness  of  light  re- 
flected by  particles  in  suspension  in  a  tube.)  (From  Zentralblatt  filr 
inner e  Medizin,  Leipzig,  41:  No.  2  (Jan.  10,  1920);  through  Jour. 
Amer.  Med.  Assoc.,  Mar.  27,  1920.) 
Adui^teration  of  Origanum  Majorana. — Origanum  Major  ana 
is  characterized  by  numerous  multicellular  hairs  mostly  curved  and 
usually  finely  warty.  Thymus  serpyllum  has  but  few  multicellular 
hairs;  distinctive  for  this  plant  are  the  very  short  tooth-like  hairs 
on  the  margin  of  the  leaf.  T.  vulgaris  has  numerous  short,  one- 
celled,  minutely  warty  hairs,  and  also  two-celled  hairs  with  a  bent 
