322  Notes  on  Pepsin.  {^yl^f*' 
Salt.  Quinia.  Found.  Calculated. 
-25  gram.        -137  gram.        54*8  per  cent.        56-66  per  cent. 
The  composition  of  the  salt  is  then  most  probably  C7H2(CaoH24Na 
Oi)'r07,  which  corresponds  to  the  silver  salt  C7H.,Ag207. 
Laboratory  of  Dr.  J.  Walz, 
No.  18  Exchange  Piace,  New  York. 
— American  Chemist,  May,  1873. 
NOTES  ON  PEPSIN. 
By  Edward  H.  Hoskin,  JN1.  D.,  Lowell. 
Much  has  been  said  about  physicians'  prescriptions  being  inaccu- 
rately compounded,  and  much  fault  found  with  the  incompetency  of 
apothecaries  and  their  assistants — frequently,  no  doubt,  without  in- 
justice to  either  party.  As  much  fault  may  be  found  with  some  of 
the  preparations,  because  of  their  impurities,  and  often  of  the  posi- 
tive inertness  of  what  should  be  the  active  principle  on  which  the  ef- 
ficacy of  the  drug  depends.  Amongst  these  preparations,  pepsin  is 
particularly  alluded  to. 
The  market  is  flooded  with  pepsin,  of  German,  French,  English 
and  American  manufacture,  its  elixirs,  wines  and  troches — elixirs 
per  se,  and  in  alleged  combination  with  bismuth,  iron,  strychnia,  etc. 
— in  fact,  so  elegantly,  and  apparently  therapeutically  combined,  as 
to  please  the  eye,  taste  and  judgment  of  the  physician,  and  by  its 
promised  combination,  to  appear  to  him  as  the  very  thing  he  wants 
in,  his  daily  practice.  All  is  not  gold  that  glitters,  nor  is  all  pepsin 
that  is  called  so,  nor  do  all  its  preparations  contain  the  promised 
principle. 
Curiosity  at  first  induced  me  to  examine  a  sample  of  Boudalt's 
pepsin,  and  getting  a  negative  result,  I  still  more  carefully  tried 
three  other  samples  of  the  same  make,  and  found  all  inert  ;  I  then 
tried  Velpeau's,  and  with  the  same  result,  and  then  various  samples 
of  American  preparation,  but  not  ona  could  I  find  that  was  in  any 
way  a  solvent  of  coagulated  albumen.  I  next  tried  some  elixirs, 
and  not  one  of  these  would  produce  the  required  result  ;  then  some 
of  the  wines,  and  with  the  same  lack  of  success. 
After  these  experiments,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  pepsin,  as 
sold  in  the  shops,  was  a  fraucl,  that  physicians  were  defrauded  of 
their  success,  and  the  patient  of  his  health  and  his  means,  through 
the  worthlessness  of  the  drug  supplied. 
