120 
Varieties. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Feb.,  1884. 
VAEIETIES. 
Effect  of  Alum  Gargles  upon  the  Teeth.— M.  Young  ("Courier 
Med.),  prescribed  a  gargle  containing  a  small  proportion  of  alum  for  a 
woman  suffering  from  chronic  pharyngitis  with  catarrh  of  the  middle  ear. 
The  patient,  finding  relief,  continued  its  use  for  some  three  weeks.  But 
perceiving  that,  at  meals,  her  teeth  began  to  crumble  into  little  pieces,  she 
consulted  her  dentist,  who  considered  it  due  to  the  alum  gargle,  as  when 
the  enamel  is  removed  from  the  teeth  the  alum  breaks  down  the  dentine. 
To  prevent  this  it  is  best,  immediately  after  using  an  alum  gargle,  to  wash 
the  mouth  out  with  a  solution  of  bicarbonate  of  soda  or  an  alkaline  water. 
— Med.  and  Surg.  Reporter. 
Mineral  Waters. — When  one  day  there  comes  to  be  written,  from  the 
standpoint  of  modern  science,  a  history  of  human  superstition,  those  chap- 
ters of  the  work  which  deal  with  belief  in  the  various  virtues  from  time  to 
time  accredited  to  waters,  either  of  miraculous  or  of  natural  origin,  will 
assuredly  not  be  either  the  shortest  or  the  least  interesting.  No  one  who 
has  visited  one  of  the  springs  which  occur  in  almost  every  rocky  range 
from  the  Grampian  to  the  Pyrenees,  and  which  a  ready  faith  invests  with 
supernatural  curative  power,  can  see  much  reason  to  expect  that  such  belief 
will  suffer  measurable  diminution  for  many  generations.  With  the  mineral 
spring  proper  the  case  is  different ;  and  while  it  seems  long  to  look  back  to 
the  time  when  the  temples  to  Esculapius  were  erected  near  to  such  sources, 
and  while  it  is  true  that  even  to-day  much  mysticism  is  allowed  to  surround 
the  subject,  the  chemist  of  the  age  is  in  a  position  to  assert  that  the  curative 
action  of  any  given  mineral  water  is  a  result  of  the  combined  therapeutic 
action  of  the  sum  of  its  constituents. — Medical  Press;  Louisv.  Med.  News.. 
Nitrite  of  Sodium. — Drs.  Ringer  and  Murrell  have  concluded  that  the 
ordinarily  prescribed  dose  (20  grs.)  is  dangerously  large.  From  some  obser- 
vations of  Dr.  A.  H.  Baines,  in  the  Lancet,  December  1,  1883,  it  seems  that 
this  drug  is  often  adulterated  with  nitrate  of  sodium,  and  from  this  fact  has 
arisen  the  supposed  necessity  for  such  large  doses.  If  we  can  procure  the 
pure  drug,  and  we  ought  to  do  so  if  we  use  it  at  all,  two  or  three  grains  will 
be  the  dose.  Dr.  Baines  reports  a  case  of  petit  mal  in  which  its  use  was 
very  beneficial. — Med.  and  Surg.  Rep.,  Jan.  19,  1884. 
Corrosive  Sublimate  in  Gonorrhoea.  —  Dr.  Joseph  McChesney,  of 
Deming,  New  Mexico,  contributes  to  the  Therapeutic  Gazette,  for  Decem- 
ber, a  report  of  a  series  of  seven  cases  of  gonorrhoea  in  which  he  employed 
by  way  of  treatment  only  a  solution  of  corrosive  sublimate,  one  grain  to 
six  ounces  of  water.  The  results  are  already  very  surprising.  In  several 
of  these  cases  this  injection  was  resorted  to  aftor  a  long  and  unsuccessful 
course  with  the  ordinary  remedies  in  such  cases,  and  the  result  was  uniform 
success.  He  resorts  to  these  injections,  which  he  gives  once  every  four 
hours,  after  the  subsidence  of  the  acute  stage.    He  is  very  confident  that, 
