40 
Aconitine  for  Internal  Use. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm.. 
Jan.,  1884. 
ACONITINE  FOR  INTERNAL  ADMINISTRATION. 
By  T.  B.  Groves. 
Bead  before  the  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference. 
From  a  perusal  of  an  article  11  Preparations  of  Aconite,"  in  No.  5r 
vol.  i.,  of  Dr.  Squibb's  Ephemeris,  it  would  appear  that  aconite  plays 
a  more  important  part  in  medication  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic 
than  it  does  in  this  country.  Here  the  admitted  uncertainty  of  action 
both  in  degree  and  kind  of  the  official  preparations  of  the  drug  seems 
to  have  had  the  effect  of  dismissing  both  drug  and  preparation  from 
the  medical  armory :  there,  on  the  contrary,  this  feeling  serves  but  to 
stimulate  research  with  the  view  of  providing  for  medical  practitioners 
a  trustworthy  peparation  of  a  drug  of  admittedly  high  value.  Pharma- 
cists cannot  but  feel  greatly  indebted  to  Dr.  Squibb  for  his  able  article 
on  the  subject,  although  his  conclusions  may  not  meet  with  universal 
acceptance.  In  fact,  it  seems  to  me  that  to  decide,  after  all  the  labor 
that  has  been  expended  on  the  chemistry  of  the  aconite  alkaloids  by 
Wright,  Duquesnel,  and  others,  on  recommending  for  internal  use  a 
fluid  extract  of  a  root  that  varies  so  greatly  in  activity,  is  a  distinct 
retrogression  in  pharmacy  tending  to  render  useless  a  vast  amount  of 
original  research  conducted  with  unusual  care  and  completeness.  It 
is  true  that  Dr.  Squibb  has  indicated  a  method  of  estimating  by  the 
sense  of  taste  the  quality  of  the  root,  but  such  a  method,  crude  in 
extreme  as  it  must  be  in  any  case,  would  be  unable  to  distinguish 
between  roots  differing  widely  in  their  chemistry  and  physiology,  like 
A.  Napellus  and  A.ferox.  In  fact,  the  latter,  owing  to  the  less  amount 
of  acrid  resin  it  contains,  would  give  a  less  marked  result  than  its  less 
potent  congener.  It  is  not  pretended  that  the  subject  has  been 
exhausted.  New  varieties  of  root  have  from  time  to  time  made  their 
appearance  in  the  market,  and  though  the  chemist  has  essayed  to  per- 
form his  part  in  their  examination,  he  has  not  been  adequately  seconded 
by  the  experimental  physiologist.  The  legal  difficulties  in  the  path  of 
inquiry  in  this  direction  may  well  account  for  the  apparent  and  prob- 
ably only  apparent  lack  of  interest  among  the  medical  profession  in  a 
class  of  remedies  so  potent  for  good  or  evil  as  the  various  alkaloids  of 
the  genus  Aconitum. 
Practically  we  may,  I  think,  limit  our  attention  to  one  species  only 
of  the  toxic  aconites.    A.  Napellus  is  that  which  has,  I  believe,  been 
