AmMa?chJ9ot.rm-}  Size  of  the  Eye  Dropper.  123 
lows:  Several  drops  of  a  weak  sulphuric-acid  solution  are  added 
to  5  c.c.  of  milk  and  weak  Scruff's  reagent  is  added.  A  reddish 
violet  ring  shows  the  presence  of  formaldehyde. 
My  own  work  with  methyl  alcohol  has  been  largely  upon  the 
question  as  to  whether  or  not  methyl  alcohol  per  se  is  poisonous. 
And  granting  this  to  be  the  case — as  the  evidence  would  seem  to 
show — whether  or  not  the  methyl  radical  is  toxic,  and,  if  so,  what 
preparations  into  which  it  enters  may  be  harmful  medicinally  ?  It 
would  seem  that  methyl  alcohol  when  introduced  into  the  system  is 
but  slowly  eliminated,  and  that  it  is  converted  into  formic  acid  and  for. 
maldehyde.  Like  arsenic,  methyl  alcohol  and  formic  acid  are  excreted 
by  the  glands  of  the  stomach  even  when  introduced  into  the  body  in 
other  channels  than  by  the  mouth,  so  that  we  have  a  double  toxic 
effect  of  the  drug  upon  the  alimentary  canal.  This  might  even  be 
used  as  a  physiologic  test  for  the  detection  of  the  presence  of 
methyl  alcohol.  The  theory  as  to  ethyl  alcohol  being  produced  by 
the  metabolic  processes  in  the  human  body  is  again  coming  into 
prominence,  and  while  methyl  alcohol  has  not  been  discovered  in 
nature,  it  may  be  owing  to  the  same  difficulty  which  physiologists 
have  encountered  in  their  endeavor  to  show  that  ethyl  alcohol 
exists  normally  in  the  body. 
THE  SIZE   OF  THE   DROPPER  AS   APPLIED   TO  EYE 
DROPS  CONTAINING  ALKALOIDS. 
By  Dr.  P.  N.  K.  Schwenk, 
An  Attending  Surgeon  to  Wills  Eye  Hospital  and  Eye  Department  of  Pennsyl- 
vania Hospital. 
There  are  many  drugs,1  mostly  in  the  form  of  alkaloids  or  their 
salts,  which,  when  applied  to  the  eye,  have  the  power  of  producing 
dilatation  of  the  pupil  (mydriasis),  and  hence  called  mydriatics,  while 
others2  have  the  effect  of  diminishing  the  size  of  the  pupil  (i.  e.}  of 
producing  myosis'),  and  hence  called  myotics. 
Since  most  of  these  medicines  are  poisonous  when  given  in 
excess,  great  care  must  be  exercised  not  to  apply  them  too  freely, 
L  e.f  within  the  prescribed  dictation  of  the  physician  or  oculist  who 
prescribes. 
Atropine,  homatropine,  daturine,  duboisine,  hyoscyamine,  scopalamine, 
ephedrin,  mydrin,  gelsemine,  cocaine,  etc. 
2  Eserine,  pilocarpine,  etc. 
