Am  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.,  1884. 
Pharmacy  of  the  Pomegranate. 
29 
the  post-mortem  appearances.  He  accordingly  gave  it  at  first  one-grain 
pills  of  naphthol  every  three  hours,  and  subsequently  increased  the 
amount  to  two  grains  and  again  to  four  grains  at  the  same  intervals. 
But  beyond  increasing  the  animal's  appetite  no  effects  were  apparent. 
Following  these  experiments  two  of  his  assistants  took  numerous  and 
large  doses  (reaching  as  high  as  five  grains  twice  a  day)  without  other 
effect  than  a  sensation  of  temporary  warmth  in  the  epigastric  region 
after  each  dose  and  subsequent  slight  vertigo  and  buzzing  of  the  ears, 
with  other  evidences  of  hyperemia.  The  alvine  evacuations  were 
softened  to  a  mushy  consistence  and  changed  to  a  clay  color;  in  one 
instance  diarrhoea  occurred.  The  deduction  from  these  experiments 
clearly  is  that  in  the  case  of  the  ill  effects  reported  an  impure  prepar- 
ation had  been  employed. 
Dr.  Shoemaker  pronounces  purified  naphthol  to  be  far  superior  to 
carbolic  acid  and  the  other  antiseptics  which  have  been  in  vogue,  while 
it  is  almost  absolutely  odorless.  It  has  the  advantage  also  of  being 
cheaper  than  carbolic  acid,  when  the  amount  required  to  produce  its 
effect  is  considered. — Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans., Dec.  1,  page430. — Thei^ap. 
Gazette,  Nov.,  J 883. 
CONTRIBUTION  TO  THE  PHARMACY  OF  THE  POME- 
GRANATE. 
By  Louis  Siebold. 
Read  before  the  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference. 
The  great  value  of  the  root-bark  of  Punica  Granatum  as  a  remedy 
for  tapeworm  is  so  well  established  as  to  need  no  comment.  It  is  well 
known,  however,  that  the  administration  of  this  drug  often  results  in 
failure  on  account  of  the  extremely  nauseous  astringent  taste  of  its 
decoction  and  its  consequent  rejection  by  the  stomach,  a  fact  which 
renders  it  almost  useless  for  ladies  and  children.  The  usual  way  of 
meeting  similar  objections  in  other  cases,  by  substituting  the  active 
principles  for  the  crude  drug,  does  not  seem  to  promise  well  in  this 
instance,  owing  to  the  difficulties  attending  the  isolation  of  these  prin- 
ciples in  a  pure  state  and  their  proneness  to  decomposition  (see  C. 
Tanret's  researches  on  pelletierine  and  the  other  alkaloids  of  the 
pomegranate,  abstracted  in  the  "  Year-Book  of  Pharmacy,"  J  878,  p.  43  ; 
1879,  p.  38  ;  and  1880,  p.  64.)  The  question  then  arises,  whether  it 
is  possible  to  produce,  by  a  comparatively  simple  process,  a  pharmaceu- 
