AmjS"i£Sarni'}  Progress  in  Pharmacy.  287 
Comparative  Toxicity  of  Phenol  and  Cresols — Tollens  has  made  a 
series  of  experiments  on  frogs,  mice  and  cacs  to  determine  the 
toxicity  of  phenol  and  sodium  phenate  as  compared  to  ortho, 
meta  and  para  cresol.  He  finds  that  para  cresol  is  more  poisonous 
than  phenol ;  that  ortho  cresol  is  about  equal  in  its  toxicity  to 
phenol,  and  that  meta  cresol  is  less  powerful  than  either  of  the 
others.  {Phar.  Jour.,  March,  1905,  page  405  ;  from  Arch.  f.  exper. 
Pathol) 
Urotropin,  Helmitol  and  Neurolropin. — A.  Nicolaier  has  made  a 
series  of  experiments  and  finds  that  despite  the  fact  that  theoretically 
methylene-citric  acid  (Helmitol)  and  the  methylene  citric  acid  com- 
binations  with  hexamethylenetetramine  (Neurotropic),  should  lib- 
erate larger  quantities  of  formaldehyde  than  hexamethylenetetra- 
mine, these  preparations,  when  given  to  dogs  or  men,  appeared  to 
have  the  reverse  of  the  expected  action. 
Hexamethylenetetramine  is  found  to  be  the  most  active  and  the 
methylenecitric  acid  the  least.  {Phar.  Jour.,  1905,  page  405  ;  from 
Arch.f.  Klin.  Med) 
The  Relations  between  Natural  and  Synthetical  Glycero phosph oric 
Acid. — Frederick  B.  Power  and  Frank  Tutin  have  experimentally 
confirmed  the  observations  of  Carre,  that  at  temperatures  above 
I  io°  the  interaction  between  phosphoric  acid  and  glycerole  results 
in  the  production  of  varying  amounts  of  diester  accompanying  the 
monoester  or  glycerophosphoric  acid.  They  do  not  agree  with 
Willstatter  and  Diideke  that  the  natural  and  the  synthetical  glycero- 
phosphoric acid  are  not  identical,  but  believe  that  the  latter  authors 
have  been  misled  by  the  accompanying  contamination  of  the  glycero- 
phosphoric acid  by  the  diester.  (Chem.  and  Drug.,  March,  1905, 
page  394.) 
Guadeloupe  Jaborandi. — Dr.  G.  Weigel  has  had  an  opportunity  of 
examining  a  sample  of  Guadeloupe  Jaborandi.  The  leaves  are  par- 
ticularly noticeable  for  their  size,  some  of  them  being  as  much  as  20 
centimetres  long  and  10  centimetres  wide,  the  average  leaf  being  10 
centimetres  long  and  half  as  wide.  As  a  chief  characteristic  of 
Guadeloupe  Jaborandi,  Weigel  points  out  that  the  midrib  on  the 
under  side  of  the  leaf  is  particularly  prominent.  An  assay  of  the 
sample  showed  it  to  contain  but  0  353  per  cent,  of  alkaloids.  {Phar. 
Centrh.y  1905,  page  146.) 
Commercial  Formaldehyde  Solutions. — W.  K.  Schulz  has  examined 
