682 
Current  Literature. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
(    vSeptember,  1920. 
Excessive  Sweating  of  the  Feet. — Lopez  discusses  this  subject  from 
the  miUtary  standpoint,  and  his  success  in  curing  plantar  hyper- 
hydrosis  in  soldiers  with  a  dusting  powder  consisting  of  60  parts  alum 
and  40  parts  talcum  powder.  This  reduced  or  checked  completely 
the  excessive  sweating,  eliminated  the  bad  odor,  and  prevented 
maceration,  etc.,  from  the  sweat,  while  saving  the  shoes  from  constant 
moisture.  He  ascribes  the  cause  of  the  hyperhydrosis  and  certain 
vasomotor  phenomena,  chilblains,  varices,  haemorrhoids,  and 
similar  minor  disturbances  to  some  general  toxic  action,  and  thinks 
that  incipient,  attenuated  tuberculosis  is  responsible  for  this  in  many 
cases.  He  says  that  general  treatment  by  the  Argentine  method  of 
extremely  minute  doses  of  tuberculin  may  be  worth  a  trial,  or  with 
Ferran's  antialpha  serotherapy  or  vaccine.  (From  Semana  Medica, 
Buenos  Aires,  Mar.  25,  1920;  through  Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Assoc., 
Aug.  14,  1920.) 
The  Excretion  of  Quinine. — As  having  a  bearing  on  the  recent 
discussions  on  the  value  and  method  of  administration  of  quinine, 
a  report  made  to  the  War  Office  by  M.  Nierenstein  and  cited  in  the 
Lancet  (1920,  i,  1126,  May  22)  is  of  some  importance.  This  in- 
vestigator finds  that  half  of  the  quinine  administered  is  excreted  by 
way  of  the  urine,  while  the  remainder  is  metabolized  into  quitinine 
and  haemoquinic  acid,  both  of  which  are  found  in  the  urine.  The 
tests  for  these  bodies  are  qualitative  and  quantitative,  those  recom- 
mended being  Herapath's  elaborated  by  Ramsden  and  Lipkin  for 
the  former  and  Barratt  and  Yorke's  for  the  latter.  Haemoquinic 
acid  is  constantly  present  in  blackwater  fever,  in  much  larger  quanti- 
ties than  in  the  urine  of  ordinary  malarial  patients.  There  is  no 
variation  in  the  proportion  excreted  if  the  dose  is  from  20  to  70 
grains  daily.  A  dose  of  over  30  grains,  which  raised  the  unchanged 
quinine  in  the  urine  above  1 1  grains  per  liter,  is  apt  to  cause  albumi- 
nuria. A  variation  of  the  preparations  administered  does  not  alter 
the  proportion  of  quinine  excreted  unchanged.  (Editorial  from  The 
Prescriher,  August,  1920.) 
Mercurochrome — 220  in  Ophthalmia  Neonatorum. — ^The  new  oxiti- 
septic  Mercurochrome-2 20,  has  been  tried  in  ophthalmia  neonatorum 
by  C.  A.  Clapp  and  M.  G.  Martin,  who  issue  a  preliminary  report 
(Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Assoc.,  74:  1224,  1920,  May  i).  They  describe  four 
cases,  in  all  of  which  the  infection  completely  disappeared  under 
treatment  with  this  drug.    A  2  per  cent,  solution  was  used.  The 
