Am.  .Tour.  Pharm.  1 
March,  1905.  J 
Standard  Eye  Dropper. 
127 
outer  and  inner  surface  of  the  lids  with  a  boracic  acid  solution  and 
afterward  flushed  the  eyes  with  a  warm  boracic  acid  solution,  and, 
in  spite  of  all  this  care,  was  not  able  to  secure  an  eye  free  from 
micro-organisms. 
And  yet  this  last  statement  should  in  no  wise  deter  us  from 
approaching  as  close  to  absolute  cleanliness  as  possible  in  all  that 
is  done  about  the  eye.  Droppers  should  be  thoroughly  rinsed 
each  time  before  using.  The  eye  or  eyes  should  be  thoroughly 
flushed  with  warm  boracic  acid  solution,  and  any  and  all  instruments 
boiled  (excepting  those  with  sharp  cutting  edges  which  should  be 
immersed  for  half  an  hour  in  absolute  alcohol)  before  introducing 
them  into  the  eye.  If  we  cannot  make  the  eye  sterile  we  can  at 
least  make  the  instruments  and  eyes  as  clean  as  possible.  Experi- 
mental bacteriology  has  proven  that  when  the  number  of  bacteria 
is  reduced  below  a  certain  quantity  and  the  soil  made  uncongenial, 
there  is  little,  if  any,  danger  of  infection,  hence  the  imperative 
need  for  simple  absolute  cleanliness. 
m.  1.  WII.BERT 
said  : 
"  The  International  Conference  for  the  Unification  of  the  Form- 
ulae of  Potent  Medicaments,  held  at  Brussels,  Belgium,  in  1902, 
recommended  the  adoption  of  a  normal  drop  counter,  having  an 
external  dropping  surface  of  3  millimetres,  and  dropping,  at  150  C, 
drops  that  will  weigh  0  05,  or  the  equivalent  of  one-twentieth  of 
1  c.c. 
This  recommendation  has  been  officially  adopted  by  every  coun- 
try represented  at  the  conference,  with  the  exception  of  Germany 
and  the  United  States,  and  will,  no  doubt,  go  far  towards  correcting 
the  various  existing  ideas  regarding  drops.  For  general  use,  as 
dose  measures,  even  the  universal  adoption  of  this  standard  drop 
and  dropper  will  not  overcome  the  inherent  tendency  to  alter  the 
size  of  the  dropping  surface,  and  with  it  the  size  of  the  drop,  by 
changing  the  angle  at  which  the  dropping  device  is  held.  One 
other  serious  defect  with  even  the  best  of  our  generally  used  pipette 
droppers  is  the  difficulty  of  instilling  one  or  two  drops  into  the 
eye,  without  causing  an  accidental  deluge  of  drops  to  inundate  the 
eye,  and  causing  the  unexpected  untoward  effects  referred  to  by 
the  doctor  in  his  paper.  The  Germans  have  overcome  this  latter 
