Am.  Jour.  Pharrn.  ) 
May,  1915.  J 
Remarks  on  Digitalis. 
215 
ment  is  made  that  soil  containing  iron  is  best  adapted  for  its  growth. 
According  to  Gehe  (Handesberichte,  191 3,  p.  84)  : 
"  Digitalis  is  found  generally  on  soil  containing  iron  and  man- 
ganese, and  does  not  occur  in  Switzerland  on  this  account.  It  is 
assumed  that  manganese  is  essential  for  the  life  of  digitalis." 
In  contradiction  of  this,  Hatcher  says : 
"  Another  curious  misconception  regarding  digitalis  which  is 
hard  to  explain  is  that  the  leaf  grown  in  certain  regions  is  more  active 
than  that  grown  in  other  localities." 
This  is  probably  the  most  remarkable  statement  in  Hatcher's 
excellent  paper.  Whosoever  has  paid  attention  to  the  development 
of  agricultural  chemistry,  the  introduction  and  first  results  of  which 
have  made  Liebig  immortal,  would  rather  say :  "  It  would  be  hard  to 
explain  if  the  leaf  grown  in  certain  regions  were  not  more  or  less 
active  than  that  grown  in  other  localities."  I  do  not  think  that  a 
plant  of  powerful  and  characteristic  properties  is  known  that  does 
not  change  its  nature  nor  produce  its  constituents  in  a  larger  or 
smaller  quantity  when  transplanted  to  a  new  soil.  Every  farmer  in 
France  and  Germany  knows  that  the  same  potato  planted  in  a 
marshy  soil  will  produce  a  different  tuber  than  when  planted  in  a 
sandy  soil.  Grape-vines  brought  from  the  Rhine  or  Garonne  to 
California  will  flower  and  bring  fruit,  but  the  grape  differs  in  flavor 
and  amount  of  alcohol  produced.  The  same  vine  even  differs  in 
different  parts  of  California.  Many  European  aromatic  flowers,  like 
chamomile,  mullein,  and  others,  grow  abundantly  in  America,  but 
lack  the  ingredients  that  make  them  valuable ;  and  they  even  differ  in 
aromatic  properties  in  different  parts  of  the  home  country.  Why 
should  digitalis  be  an  exception  to  this  general  rule  ?  Doctor  Thorns, 
of  the  Pharmaceutical  Institute  of  Berlin,  one  of  the  best  and  most 
careful  pharmacologists  living,  states  in  the  last  volume  of  the 
Arbeit  en  aus  dem  Pharmazeutischen  Institut,  1914,  p.  202,  speak- 
ing of  the  difficulties  of  cultivating  certain  medicinal  plants : 
"  How  important,  for  instance,  it  would  be  to  have  digitalis, 
which  in  different  parts  of  Germany  is  subject  to  such  extraor- 
dinary variations  in  respect  to  its  active  principles,  under  proper 
scientific  cultivation  and  discover  the  conditions  which  for  the  growth 
and  production  of  the  active  principles  of  digitalis  are  most  favor- 
able." 
The  chemistry  of  digitalis  is  still  more  confused  than  its  phar- 
macy, and  so  far  every  new  assayer  has  discovered — or  claims  to 
