14 
ECONOMY  IN  THE  USE  OP  ALCOHOL  IN  PERCOLATION. 
In  combination  with  other  purgatives  it  appears  well  adapted 
to  replace  Jalap,  Scammony  and  Gamboge  with  advantage  to  the 
combinations,  and  it  is  in  such  combinations  that  it  has  been 
hitherto  most  commonly  used,  and  perhaps  with  most  advantage. 
Such  combinations  are,  however,  by  no  means  favorable  to  an 
accurate  knowledge  of  its  peculiarities,  either  in  effect  or  adapta- 
tion, and  they  tend  to  that  polypharmacy  which  makes  medica- 
tion so  uncertain  and  medical  testimony  upon  therapeutic  values 
so  variable. 
It  is  well  worth  while  to  caution  those  who  handle  Podophyllum 
in  fine  powder,  and  especially  the  resin,  in  rubbing  up,  making 
plls,  etc.,  against  getting  the  dust  in  the  eyes.  It  is  exceedingly 
irritant,  worse  than  cantharides,  and  almost  as  bad  as  euphor- 
bium  ;  and  it  not  unfrequently  happens  to  the  writer,  in  handling 
it  on  the  large  scale,  to  have  men  laid  up  for  two  or  three  days 
at  a  time  and  suffer  severe  pain,  but  always  thus  far  without  per- 
manent injury.  Much  care  is  always  used  to  protect  the  eyes 
and  to  well  wash  the  hands,  etc,  but  yet  they  occasionally  suffer, 
and  in  a  recent  instance  the  attack  did  not  come  on  until  24 
hours  after  the  resin  had  been  finished  and  put  away.  The  hands 
most  frequently  convey  the  powder  to  the  face  and  eyes,  and  the 
handling  of  dusty  overhauls,  or  a  brush,  or  some  such  matter, 
after  the  necessity  for  caution  has  been  dismissed  from  the  mind, 
will  occasionally  produce  the  effect. 
In  the  foregoing  paper  the  unsettled  questions  as  to  the  con- 
stitution of  this  resin- — as  to  the  presence  or  absence  of  berberina 
when  muriatic  acid  is  used,  and  as  to  whether  berberina  plays 
an  active  part  in  the  peculiar  effects  ascribed  to  Podophyllum — - 
have  been  purposely  avoided  as  being,  in  the  present  state  of  our 
knowledge  of  the  substance,  more  curious  than  practically  in- 
structive. The  writer  feels  sure  that,  for  the  present,  in  obtain- 
ing a  uniform  active  resin  from  Podophyllum  we  have  gone  far 
enough,  if  not  too  far,  until  its  qualities  are  better  investigated, 
since  a  simple  fluid-extract,  or  an  alcoholic  extract  (not  the 
officinal)  would  be  perhaps  better  and  safer  preparations  upon 
which  to  accumulate  accurate  knowledge  of  its  effects. 
Brooklyn,  November  26th,  1867. 
