Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
March,  1893.  J 
Local  Indigenous  Plants. 
149 
pepsin  is  best  mixed  with  four  times  its  weight  of  sugar  of  milk, 
and  a  proportionate  quantity  of  this  mixture  used.  When  of  good 
quality  one-tenth  of  a  grain  of  pepsin  will  dissolve  the  whole  of  the 
200  grains  of  albumin.  It  is  best  to  make  comparative  experiment 
with  a  standard  pepsin  of  great  and  known  strength,  and  also  with 
a  flask  containing  the  same  amount  of  albumin  and  acidulated  water, 
but  no  pepsin.  Should  the  pepsin  under  examination  not  dissolve 
all  the  albumin,  comparison  with  the  flask  containing  no  pepsin  will 
show  approximately  how  much  has  been  dissolved,  and  help  to 
indicate  how  much  more  pepsin  to  use  in  a  second  experiment,  to 
dissolve  all  the  albumin,  so  as  to  effect  perfect  solution. 
Should  it  be  necessary  to  ascertain  how  much  peptone  and  how 
much  syntonin  are  formed  during  the  digestion,  the  mixture  should 
be  boiled,  to  destroy  any  further  action  of  the  pepsin.  The  solution 
is  then  filtered  from  any  undissolved  albumin,  and  the  filtered  solu- 
tion, while  still  warm,  neutralized  with  sodium  carbonate,  when 
syntonin  will  be  thrown  down.  The  difference  between  the  syntonin 
and  undissolved  albumin,  and  the  original  amount  of  albumin  used 
in  the  experiment,  will  give  the  amount  of  real  peptone  formed 
during  the  process  of  digestion. 
SOME  LOCAL  INDIGENOUS  PLANTS  OF  MEDICAL 
INTEREST. 
By  Joseph  Crawford,  Ph.G. 
Read  before  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  Feb.  21. 
[See  also  Januarj'  number,  p.  42-50.] 
Our  next  field  of  medicinal  plants  will  show  us  those  of  the  ganiopetalous 
division,  i.  e.,  those  having  the  corolla  or  most  attractive  portion  of  the  flower 
composed  of  parts  almost  or  entirely  united.  The  first  one  to  greet  us  in  our 
new  field  will  be  Sambucus  canadensis,  or  common  elder.  Its  bush}'  and 
symmetrical  growth,  large  pinnate  opposite  leaves,  handsome  white  flowers 
terminating  the  stems  and  abundant  good  fruit,  make  it  quite  a  conspicuous 
object  throughout  the  season,  along  many  a  fence  row;  and  some  authorities 
go  so  far  as  to  say  that  our  elder  is  almost  a  pharmacy  of  itself,  nearly  every 
portion  having  been  used  for  some  trouble  or  other  in  domestic  practice. 
Regular  practitioners  restrict  the  use  of  it  very  materially  nowadays. 
Our  next  genus  is  likely  to  have  a  representative  also  along  the  fence, 
Viburnum  prunifolium,  or  the  sheep-berry  of  our  youthful  days.  For  those 
who  may  have  forgotten  it,  we  give  you  this  inadequate  word  picture  somehow 
as  we  recall  it  :  A  shrub  or  dwarf  tree  seldom  over  15  feet  in  this  latitude,  very 
erect  or  strict  trunk,  but  body  of  shrub  is  heavily  branched  in  every  direction, 
making  an  impenetrable  head  of  twigs  but  of  graceful  outline.    If  you  can 
