AmMay'i?9o.arm"}    Standardization  of  Officinal  Drugs.  217 
processes  published.  Some  fqw  of  the  alkaloids  of  a  decidedly  basic 
nature  can  be  estimated  volumetrically  by  their  saturating  power 
with  sulphuric  or  hydrochloric  acids.  The  proposed  methods  of 
titrating  with  Mayer's  reagent  or  with  phosphotungstic  solution  are 
admittedly  incorrect  in  many  cases.  An  assay  of  aconite  is  likely  to 
be  falsified  by  the  presence  of  napelline  and  other  inert  bitter  prin- 
ciples, and  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  the  alkaloid  in  anything  like 
a  pure  condition  is  proven  by  the  experiments  of  C.  R.  A.  Wright, 
Groves  and  other  investigators.  Again  aconitine  is  very  prone  to 
change  from  exposure  to  heat  or  to  treatment  even  with  weak  acids 
or  alkalies  to  the  amorphous  aconine,  of  greatly  reduced  activity. 
The  analysis  of  organic  drugs  is  a  matter  of  great  scientific  value 
and  interest,  but  we  are  compelled  to  admit  that*  many  of  our  pro- 
cesses of  assay  are  faulty,  admitting  of  but  imperfect  results,  the 
principal  value  of  which  must  be  as  a  guide  to  the  purchaser  of  lots 
of  crude  drug  to  enable  him  to  decide  approximately  their  value 
and  freedom  from  inert  material.  When  such  a  comparatively 
simple  assay  as  that  of  opium  will  yield  in  different  hands  such 
results  as  reported  by  Teschemacher  and  Smith  (Client.  News, 
1888,  104),  is  it  likely  that  assays  of  belladonna  or  aconite  would 
yield  results  at  all  valuable  ?  The  writer  would  like  to  see  a  prac- 
tical demonstration  of  this  and  would  suggest  that  a  good  commer- 
cial lot  of  either  of  these  drugs  be  procured  by  some  uninterested 
expert,  carefully  powdered  and  mixed  and  samples  distributed  to 
say  a  dozen  recognized  analysts  throughout  various  sections  of  the 
country,  results  to  be  reported  to  him  at  a  fixed  time  This  would 
yield  a  valuable  practical  demonstration  of  the  value  of  the  pharma- 
copoeial  assaying  and  do  more  to  satisfactorily  settle  the  question 
than  much  talking.  It  is  doubtful  if  a  majority  of  the  quinine 
experts  of  Europe  would  to-day  agree  upon  the  method  of  assaying 
and  the  purity  of  a  sample  of  quinine  salt. 
The  writer  sees  no  good  reason  why  nux  vomica  should  not  be 
required  to  contain  a  certain  percentage  of  mixed  alkaloids  ;  as  the 
total  percentage  of  alkaloids  here  present  brucine  and  strychnine 
does  not  vary  greatly,  and  the  physiological  action  of  brucine  is 
similar  to  but  weaker  than  that  of  strychnine.  Such  drugs  as  can- 
tharis,  podophyllum,  jalap  and  others  will  undoubtedly  admit  of 
assay.  In  many,  perhaps,  the  quantity  of  extractive  obtained  with 
various  solvents  will  be  a  valuable  indication  of  purity. 
