Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Aug.  1,  187^.  j 
Varieties. 
375 
1  think  this  crude,  inelegant  domestic  pepsin  far  superior  to  pepsin  made 
from  macerated  pigs'  stomachs,  and  it  costs  the  poor  patient  next  to  nothing. 
I  direct  the  patient  to  obtain  and  dry  these  skins  and  bruise  them. 
Portsmouth,  N.  H.  N.  L.  Folsom,  M.  D. 
—Boston  Med.  and  Surg.  Jour..  June  5,  1873. 
Oysters  and  their  Peculiar  Digestive  Property. — Messrs.  Editors. — Re- 
cently, you  had  a  paper  from  me  about  pepsin.  While  trying  experiments  with 
it,  I  was  one  day  requested  by  one  of  our  most  experienced  physicians  to  digest 
two  oysters.  I  placed  them,  after  thorough  washing,  with  one  grain  of  Schef- 
fer's  pepsin,  four  drops  hydrochloric  acid,  and  one  ounce  of  water,  in  a  test 
tube,  and  submitted  to  a  temperature  of  100°  Fah.  At  the  expiration  of  two 
hours,  almost  perfect  solution  had  taken  place,  only  four  and  a  half  grains  re- 
maining on  the  filter,  and  the  residue  was  of  a  feculent  character. 
Thinking  over  this  result,  and  the  matter  of  eating  raw  oysters,  I  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  here  we  have  an  organized  being,  with  a  stomach,  etc., 
calculated  to  digest  infusoria— as  its  food — and  hence  possessing  a  gastric 
juice  ;  and  if  so,  what  should  hinder  that  gastric  juice  from  digesting  even  the 
oyster  itself,  if  submitted  to  the  proper  condition. 
With  oysters,  as  bought  by  the  quart,  there  is  so  much  liquor.  On  boiling  a 
little  of  this  liquor  it  coagulated,  indicating  so  much  coagulable  albumen.  I 
took  another  portion  of  two  drachms  of  this  liquor,  one  drop  of  hydrochloric 
acid,  and  submitted  to  100°  Fah.  for  two  hours.  It  remained  perfectly  clear, 
and,  on  boiling  a  half  ot  it,  there  was  no  coagulation,  and,  applying  Fehling's 
test,  there  was  the  beautiful  purple  color  produced,  the  whole  indicating  that 
there  was  in  the  liquor  a  natural  element  to  produce  the  result.  This  experi- 
ment I  have  tried  repeatedly;  and,  to  make  the  matter  still  more  conclusive,  I 
placed  one  ounce  of  the  filtered  liquor  in  a  flask,  added  to  it  120  grains  of 
thoroughly  washed  and  wiped,  solid  part  of  an  oyster,  and  five  drops  hydro- 
chloric acid,  and  submitted  to  100°  Fah.  for  seven  hours.  On  filtering,  I  had 
only  seventeen  grains  of  solid  matter  left,  thus  showing  that  103  grains  of  the 
solid  oyster  had  been  digested  in  one  ounce  of  the  liquor. 
These  facts  are,  I  think,  extremely  interesting,  and  though  my  medical  bre- 
thren have,  with  me,  ordered  patients,  on  recovering  from  exhausting  disease, 
oysters  as  a  part  of  the  diet,  and  many  have  done  it  empirically,  it  has,  after 
all,  been  done  under  strictly  chemico-physiological  principles,  without  our 
knowing  it.  Very  truly  yours, 
Lowell,  May,  1873.  E.  H.  Hoskins. 
—Ibid. 
On  Dextrin — M.  Musculus. — The  author  has  transformed  glucose  into  dex. 
trin  by  a  modification  of  the  ordinary  process  of  etherification.  Glucose,  pre- 
viously dissolved  in  its  water  of  crystallization  and  cooled,  was  dissolved  in 
concentrated  sulphuric  acid.  Then,  in  piece  of  heating,  he  added  alcohol  of 
95  per  cent.  When  all  was  dissolved,  he  filtered  the  solution,  and  set  it  aside 
in  a  cool  place  in  a  well  stoppered  flask.  A  light  precipitate  appeared  on  the 
next  day,  and  continued  forming  for  about  three  weeks.    This  precipitate,  on 
