474 
Ph  a  r  maceu  tic  a  I  ResearcJi . 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t     October,  1899. 
Chemical  methods  should  always  be  employed  in  preference  to 
animal  experiments  where  possible ;  but  there  is  a  large  class  of 
drugs  containing  active  constituents  about  which  little  is  known,  or 
which  are  of  such  a  delicate  nature  that  decomposition  results  when 
they  are  subjected  to  chemical  manipulations,  consequently  it  is 
impossible  to  standardize  them  by  ordinary  means.  I  refer  to  Indian 
cannabis,  ergot,  and  especially  to  the  heart  tonics  of  the  digitalis 
group,  etc.  No  directions  are  given  in  the  U.S. P.  for  the  assay  of 
these  substances,  yet  the  most  poisonous  drugs  employed  in  thera- 
peutics belong  to  the  digitalis  series.  As  given  by  several  of  the 
best  authorities,  the  maximum  dose  of  belladonna  is  twice  as  great 
as  that  of  digitalis,  while  ten  times  as  much  absolute  HCN  can  be 
given  with  safety  as  of  strophanthin. 
Brunton  found,  by  experiments  upon  animals,  that  amyl  nitrite 
dilates  the  arterioles  and  lowers  blood  pressure,  and  recommended 
the  drug  in  angina  pectoris.  His  recommendation,  as  is  well  known, 
has  been  confirmed  by  abundant  clinical  experience.  Through  the 
exhaustive  researches  of  Schmiedeberg  and  others,  the  rational 
application  of  digitalis  and  the  rest  of  the  heart  tonics  has  been 
rendered  possible. 
We  must  give  the  biological  laboratory  entire  credit  for  explain- 
ing the  cause  of  the  infectious  diseases,  and  for  the  revelation  of 
nature's  remedy  and  the  perfection  of  processes  for  manufacturing 
the  antitoxins.  This  is  the  most  important  discovery  in  medicine 
ever  made,  and  bids  fair  to  revolutionize  the  treatment  of  many 
diseases  that  have  heretofore  defied  the  power  of  all  drugs.  It  is 
not  my  purpose,  however,  to  speak  at  length  of  the  relation  of  the 
pharmacist  to  the  antitoxins,  as  my  time  is  too  short,  but  it  seems 
to  me  that  more  attention  should  be  paid  by  pharmacists  to  these 
products,  which  are  so  rapidly  supplanting  older  remedies. 
Too  often,  in  the  manufacture  of  pharmaceuticals,  physiologic 
activity  has  been  sacrificed  to  enhance  the  elegance  or  lessen  the 
cost  of  the  preparation.  Podwissotsky  and  DragendorfT  concluded 
from  insufficient  experimental  data  that  sclerotinic  acid  was  the 
most  desirable  constituent  of  ergot,  and,  since  it  is  readily  soluble 
in  water,  numerous  manufacturers  made  aqueous  preparations  of 
the  drug.  After  several  years  of  pharmacologic  study  of  ergot,  I 
am  satisfied  that  Kobert,  Jacobi,  etc.,  are  right  in  their  conclusion 
that  sclerotinic  acid  as  an  oxytocic  is  worthless;  large  doses  of  it 
