Am.  Jour.  Pharru.  1 
October,  1899.  J 
Pharmaceutical  Research. 
47$ 
and  of  certain  preparations  of  ergot,  made  with  an  aqueous  men- 
struum, and  therefore  containing  it,  may  be  administered  to  preg- 
nant animals  without  producing  abortion,  or  to  fowls  without  pro- 
ducing blackening  or  gangrene  of  the  comb  or  other  peripheral 
parts.  It  is  a  well-established  fact  that  ergot  may  become  quickly 
inert  if  improperly  cured  or  stored.  Indeed,  if  physiologic  exam- 
ination be  made  of  the  supplies  of  ergot  offered  for  sale  on  the  mar- 
ket, it  will  be  found  that  a  large  proportion  are  comparatively  inert. 
Pharmacologic  experiments  are  of  special  importance  in  the  iso- 
lation of  active  glucosides.  "Several  years  ago  there  was  isolated 
a  beautiful  white  scillein,  which  was  supposed  to  be  the  active  con- 
stituent of  squill.  But  since  then  it  has  been  found  to  be  entirely 
inert,  and  that  the  really  important  constituent  of  squill  is  a  brown 
resin-like  substance,  possessing  in  a  very  marked  degree  the  char- 
acteristic action  of  the  digitalis  group." 
The  various  samples  of  strophanthin,  digitalin,  and  other  gluco- 
sides found  on  the  market  vary  greatly  in  strength ;  indeed,  so  con- 
siderable is  the  discrepancy  that  the  employment  of  these  drugs  in 
tablets  by  weight  may  become  decidedly  dangerous.  Of  three 
samples  of  supposedly  CP.  strophanthin  which  I  tested  in  1897  and 
reported  in  The  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  "  there 
was  found  such  wide  variation  in  activity  that  one  was  ninety  times 
as  fatal  to  animals  as  another.  The  strength  of  the  remaining  two 
varied  between  the  above  limits.  No  two  samples  were  even  ap- 
proximately the  same  in  strength.  What  a  chance  for  a  sudden 
fatal  termination  of  an  apparently  improving  heart  case  !" 
It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the  supplies  of  crude  Indian  canna- 
bis, strophanthus  seeds,  etc.,  shipped  to  this  country  may  possess 
full  activity  or  be  almost  inert,  resulting,  consequently,  in  much 
variation  in  the  finished  products.  From  personal  observation  in 
testing  several  hundred  samples  of  crude  hemp,  I  find  that  at  least 
60  per  cent,  of  the  drug  obtainable  should  be  condemned.  Is  it 
any  wonder  that  physicians  have  come  to  believe  that  cannabis  is 
the  most  unreliable  of  drugs  ?  I  have  frequently  found  one  tincture 
of  strophanthus  three  times  as  active  as  another.  Verily  the  prac- 
titioner's path  is  full  of  pitfalls  when  he  attempts  to  prescribe  drugs 
of  this  class ! 
By  physiologic  methods,  since  many  of  these  drugs  have  an 
almost  specific  action  on  certain  organs  of  the  animal  body,  it  is 
