Am.  Jotiu  Pharm.  ) 
July  1, 1871.  ]■ 
Sophistica  tions. 
317 
become  naturalized  in  the  West,  and  is  also  cultivated  in  most  tropi- 
cal countries. 
Both  in  the  East  and  West  Indies  the  bruised  seeds  are  used  in- 
ternally and  externally  as  a  supposed  remedy  for  snake  bites  ;  they 
have  a  very  strong  musky  odor,  and  possess  cordial  and  stomachic 
properties,  and  the  Arabs  mix  them  with  their  coffee  to  give  it  a  per- 
fume. They  are  also  used  by  perfumers  in  this  country,  chiefly,  we 
believe,  in  the  form  of  powder  for  sachets,  being  imported  from  the 
West  Indies  for  this  purpose. 
Both  of  the  above-named  plants  abound  in  a  strong  silky  fibre. — 
Pharm.  Journ.  and  Trans.  June  3,  1871. 
SOPHISTICATIONS. 
Editor  Pharmacist  :  — Allow  the  undersigned  to  call,  through 
your  journal,  the  attention  of  the  professional  brethren  to  some  arti- 
cles which,  in  the  ran  after  the  almighty  dollar,"  have  been  brought 
in  the  market,  to  impose  upon  too  confiding  Pharmacists  and  upon 
the  public. 
The  first  is  ''Liebig's  Extract  of  Malt,"  manufactured  by  J.  M. 
Hirsh  &  Co.,  in  this  city.  Although  its  label  informs  that  the  manu- 
facturers have  been  awarded  a  prize  medal  at  the  Paris  Exposition, 
the  vignette  of  Louis  Napoleon  has  lost  its  charm,  and  cannot  make 
this  miserable  preparation  good,  nor  shield  it  from  the  deserved  expo- 
sure. 
The  syrup-like  Extract  of  Malt,  in  vast  preference  to  the  advertised 
beers  of  Hoff,  Koch,  etc.,  is  said  to  be  really  valuable  as  a  nutritive 
food  for  infants,  dyspeptics,  and  invalids  in  general,  owing  to  its  con- 
taining, in  a  small  compass  and  in  an  agreeable,  palatable  form,  all  the 
elements  of  the  grain  valuable  for  nutrition,  as  albumen,  sugar,  and 
phosphates. 
But  how  can  this  comparatively  nev/  remedy  be  successfully  intro- 
duced for  the  benefit  of  the  human  race,  if,  instead  of  being  pleasant 
to  the  taste  and  easy  to  digest,  it  nauseates  the  stomach  and  creates  a 
priori  by  its  offensive  odor  and  unpleasant  taste, — an  aversion  and 
prejudice  against  it  with  the  patients  who  take  it,  as  well  as  with  phy- 
sicians who  prescribe  it — if,  in  short  (as  Micawber  says),  the  extract 
of  malt  is  not  the  extract  of  malt?  And  this  very  thing  is  our  charge 
against  Hirsh's  preparation  of  that  name.    An  examination  of  the 
