100  Abstracts  from  the  French  Journals.  {^°'-Feb.?iS^"'°^' 
main  wholly  unaffected  by  the  action  of  acids. — Monde  Fharm.,  De- 
cember 20,  1887. 
Saccharin. — P.  Vigier  has  announced  to  the  French  Society  of 
Pharmacy  his  use  of  saccharin  to  advantage  in  an  elixir  dentrifioe 
made  up  with  a  large  quantity  of  oil  of  mint.  He  also  uses  saccharin 
to  sweeten  pastilles  of  chlorate  of  potassium. — Arch,  de  Phar.,  Jan- 
uary 5,  1888. 
Preservation  of  Salicylate  of  Sodium. — This  salt,  whether 
crystallized  or  in  powder,  loses  its  acid  reaction  and  makes  brown  so- 
lutions after  being  exposed  to  the  light  for  a  month  or  six  weeks ;  it 
may  also  become  musty,  and  in  paper  it  turns  grayish  and  becomes 
inert.  So  it  should  be  kept  from  moisture  and  the  light.  It  should 
also  be  said  that  its  preservation  in  liquid  form  is  umch  affected  by 
the  quality  of  the  water  used  in  making  the  solution  ;  it  may  turn 
brown  in  a  few  hours  in  ordinary  water,  though  in  distilled  water  no 
change  is  observable. — Pharm.  Cent. ;  Jour,  de  Phar.  et  de  Chim., 
January  1,  1888. 
Crystallized  Aconitine  and  Digitalin. — The  toxic  power  of 
these  chemicals  is  so  great  that  several  members  of  the  Paris  Society 
of  Pharmacy  propose  that  the  maximum  dose  of  the  former — in 
granules — should  be  limited  to  J,  and  of  the  digitalin  to  mgm. 
Bourgoin  cited  a  case  in  which  \  mgm.  caused  dangerous  symptoms ; 
and  another  in  which  \  mgm.  caused  the  death  of  the  patient. — Soc.  de 
Phar.,  Paris,  December  7,  1887. 
Amorphous  and  Crystallized  Strophanthin. — At  the  Societe 
de  Therap.,  November  23,  1887,  M.  Catillon  showed  samples  of  this 
substance  which  he  said  was  "  soluble  in  3  times  its  weight  of  warm  » 
absolute  alcohol,  and  in  30  times  its  weight  of  water;  ^  mgm.  in 
hypodermic  injection,  killed  rabbits  weighing  750  gm."  M.  Dujar- 
din-Beaumetz  has  used  strophanthus  in  three  cardiac  cases ;  he  gave 
daily  10  drops  of  a  50  per  cent,  tincture  of  the  seeds,  and  increased 
the  dose  by  two  drops  per  diem  to  15  or  16  drops  a  day.  He  uses 
also  a  tincture,  of  which  5  drops  represent  a  mgm.  of  the  extract.  He 
said  that  strophanthus  had  a  slower  but  longer  continued  action  upon 
the  heart  than  digitalis  ;  it  is  much  more  suitable  in  cases  where  the 
heart  enters  into  the  "  tired  condition,^^  than  when  systolism  is  defi- 
nitely declared.  Diuresis  by  strophanthus  is  less  abundant,  but  longer 
continued  than  that  from  digitalis.  Catillon  stated  that  Iq  mgm.  of 
strophanthin  is  equal  to  1  mgm.  of  the  extract,  or  5  drops  of  the  tine- 
