-460 
A  Note  On  Pennyroyal  Oil. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1920. 
To-day  we  are  "locking  the  stable  door  when  the  steed  is  stolen." 
Then  we  will  be  locking  the  door  before  the  thief  can  enter.  Our 
present  efforts  in  preventive  medicine  have  wrought  miraculous 
results  but  they  are  all  centred  upon  environmental  prevention. 
If  "an  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of  cure"  in  one  direction 
it  should  be  in  the  other.  Nature  is  showing  us  many  ways  by  which 
to  resist  the  poisons  of  microbes.  Let  us  learn  our  lesson  from  her. 
We  must  become  able  to  poison  our  poisoners  and  to  inhibit  the 
effects  of  their  poisons  upon  our  cells.  The  druggists  have  a  duty 
here  that  is  as  great  as  that  of  the  doctor.  He  should  discourage  all 
reckless  talk  about  the  poisonousness  of  drugs  by  teaching  his  cus- 
tomers, when  he  has  an  opportunity  to  do  so,  that  there  are  no  such 
things  as  poisons  per  se,  that  strychnine,  in  proper  physiological 
amounts  is  no  more  a  poison  than  is  bread  or  meat,  egg  or  cheese, 
and  that  soluble  poisons,  properly  diluted,  are  more  likely  to  be 
beneficial  than  harmful.  Unless  this  is  done  there  may,  at  any  time, 
arise  a  wave  of  ignorant  hysteria  that  will  destroy — as  it  has  already 
hampered  and  hindered — medical  science  in  its  work  of  aiding  the 
deluded  men  and  women  who  are  sponsors  for  restricting  and  troub- 
lous laws. 
A  NOTE  ON  THE  EXAMINATION  OF  A  COMMERCIAL 
SAMPLE  OF  OIL  OF  PENNYROYAL.* 
By  GeoRGE  M.  BeringeR  Ph.M., 
CAMDEN,  N.  J. 
On  two  occasions,  recently,  samples  of  what,  it  was  reported, 
had  been  sold  as  Oil  of  Pennyroyal  were  presented  to  the  writer 
with  the  request  that  he  determine  first,  whether  the  sample  was 
Oil  of  Pennyroyal,  and  secondly,  if  it  was  unadulterated.  The 
sample  referred  to  in  this  note  was  one  of  these. 
The  sample  measured  only  15  Cc,  and  it  was  desirable  to  retain 
at  least  a  portion  in  the  original  container  for  court  evidence,  so  the 
quantity  available  for  examination  was  not  large. 
The  U.  S.  P.,  8th  Revision,  defined  Oleum  Hedeoma  as  a  volatile 
oil,  obtained  by  distillation  from  Hedeoma  pulegoides  Linne.  The 
*  Read  at  the  meeting  of  the  New  Jersey  Pharmaceutical  Association, 
Newark,  June  9. 
