tJ2 
Keeping  Qualities  of  Ergot. 
Am.  Jour.  Phaini. 
April,  lyil. 
THE  KEEPING  QUALITIES  OF  ERGOT  AND  ITS  FLUID 
EXTRACTS. 
By  Horatio  C.  Wood,  Jr., 
Professor  of  Pharmacology  and  Therapeutics  in  the  Medico- 
Chirurgical  College. 
Drugs  are  the  doctor's  tools.  If  a  carpenter's  tools  are  of  poor 
steel,  they  will  not  take  a  fine  edge,  and  cut  but  slowly;  in  ordinary 
work,  with  soft  wood,  the  carpenter  can  manage  to  make  some 
progress,  even  with  comparatively  poor  tools,  but  when  an  extra 
hard  piece  of  timber  must  be  worked  the  edge  of  the  soft  steel  will 
turn,  and  the  tool  will  no  longer  cut  at  all.  In  an  analagous  way  the 
physician  under  ordinary  conditions,  in  the  less  serious  complaints, 
may  make  some  sort  of  progress  even  with  drugs  of  inferior  quality, 
but  in  an  emergency,  when  life  is  perhaps  hanging  in  the  balance,  it 
is  essential  that  he  have  remedies  on  whose  potency  he  can  rely. 
Ergot  is  among  those  drugs  which  are  frequently  employed  in  con- 
ditions of  immediate  danger,  and  if  pharm_acy  is  to  be  a  true  hand- 
maiden of  medicine  she  must  use  her  utmost  endeavor  tO'  supply  the 
physician  with  reliable  preparations  of  ergot. 
It  has  long  been  known  that  crude  ergot  was  liable  to  deterior- 
ation. The  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  says  "  after  being  kept 
more  than  one  year  it  is  unfit  for  use."  While  this  statement  is  a 
proper  recognition  of  the  instability  of  the  drug,  as  a  legal  standard 
it  is  a  little  extreme.  Under  present  commercial  conditions  it  is 
often  impossible  to  obtain  ergot  which  conforms  strictly  to  the  United 
States  Pharmacopoeia.  The  ergot  crop  is  harvested  chiefly  during 
the  month  of  August,  and  after  collection,  the  bulk  of  the  crop  is  sent 
to  the  large  English  exporters  from  whom  it  is  imported  into  this 
country,  and  usually  does  not  appear  upon  the  American  market  until 
about  January.  It  is,  therefore,  very  evident  that  any  ergot  which  is 
bought  between  the  months  of  August  and  January  must  be  more 
than  one  year  old.  Under  the  most  favorable  conditions,  therefore, 
during  only  seven  months  of  the  year  can  the  pharmacist  possibly 
obtain  ergot  which  is  strictly  U.S. P.  Moreover,  he  has  no 
means  of  being  sure  than  the  jobber  from  whom  he  buys  his 
ergot  is  supplying  him  with  the  latest  crop.  There  is  reason 
to  believe  that  some  importing  houses  in  New  York  keep  their  ergot, 
if  not  disposed  of,  for  several  years,   I  have  had  in  my  possession  a 
