AnApm?S»s!rm'}    Kairine,  Thattine,  Hydrochinone,  Resorcin.  197 
veins,  it  also  has  a  tonic  influence  on  the  heart  and  slightly  increases 
arterial  pressure,  or/ at  any  rate,  does  not  cause  a  diminution  of  the 
same.  It  has,  moreover,  no  injurious  influence  on  the  blood  or  the 
muscular  tissues,  and  strengthens  the  auricles. 
The  objection  to  the  employment  of  kairine  and  thalline  as  anti- 
pyretics arises  from  the  fact  that  they  cause  heart  paralysis,  especially 
affecting  the  auricles,  in  doses  only  slightly  larger  than  are  sufficient 
to  produce  a  lowering  of  the  temperature.  But  this  objection  becomes 
an  absolute  danger  when  we  take  into  account  the  destructive  influence 
upon  the  blood-corpuscles  and  tissues  generally. 
Hydrochinone  and  resorcin,  although  not  exerting  the  same  weak- 
ening and  directly  paralyzing  influence  upon  the  ventricle  of  the  heart 
which  is  peculiar  to  kairine  and  thalline,  both  paralyze  the  venous 
side  of  the  heart,  viz.,  the  auricles,  and  greatly  lower  the  tone  of  the 
walls  of  the  veins.  The  extra  amount  of  blood,  therefore,  which  is 
driven  into  the  veins  through  the  increased  action  of  the  ventricle,  is 
only  with  great  difficulty  returned  to  the  ventricle,  and  here  the  danger 
is  not  so  much  from  failure  in  the  power  of  the  ventricle  as  in  the  case 
of  kairine  and  thalline,  as  from  the  danger  of  bleeding  the  animal  to 
death  into  its  own  veins.  The  intense  visceral  and  especially  pulmonary 
congestion  found  post-mortem,  by  Dujardin-Beaumetz,  and  others,  in 
animals  killed  by  resorcin,  seems  to  confirm  this  view  of  the  matter. 
Antipyrine,  though  largely  dilating  the  veins,  increases  the  power 
of  contraction  of  both  auricles  and  ventricle,  and  has  no  injurious 
influence  upon  the  blood  nor  the  muscular  tissues,  and  therefore  pos- 
sesses, indeed,  all  the  good  qualities  of  a  perfect  antipyretic. — Am. 
Jour.  Med.  Sciences,  April,  1886,  p.  369-402. 
Cocaine.  Correction. — Dr.  A.  B.  Lyons  desires  to  correct  a  state- 
ment made  in  his  paper  on  cocaine,  with  regard  to  the  value  of  the 
equivalent  of  Mayer's  reagent  in  estimating  the  alkaloid  by  titration. 
The  figures  given  (Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,  Oct.,  1885,  p.  473)  are  only 
one  half  the  true  values.  Thus  in  a  solution  containing  one  part  of 
alkaloid  in  500,  one  c.  c.  of  Mayer's  reagent  precipitates  twenty  milli- 
grams instead  of  ten  of  the  alkaloid.  The  error  arose  from  the  use 
of  a  solution — as  recommended  by  Dragendorff — of  just  one  half  the 
strength  of  the  ordinary  Mayer's  reagent.  Any  attempt,  however,  to 
employ  this  reagent  in  the  practical  evaluation  of  galenical  prepara- 
tions of  coca  is  likely  to  lead  only  to  confusion  and  disappointment. 
