474  Relative  Value  of  Different  Pepsin  Tests.  {"^""sSt-^ilSf 
previous  ones,  we  ought,  by  multiplying  each  of  the  above  results  by 
twenty,  to  obtain  the  amount  of  peptone  which  would  be  formed  by 
using  the  pepsins  in  their  concentrated  forms,  viz.: 
Peptone  that  should  be  formed 
from  0-1  gm.  concentrated 
pepsin  in  3  hours. 
Pepsin  E  5-240 
F  2480 
H....  2500 
The  above  figures  are  not,  however,  obtained  as  has  already  been 
shown,  and  therefore  the  calculation  is  erroneous. 
As  all  the  results  obtained  by  strictly  following  KremePs  directions 
are  comparable  among  themselves,  I  do  not  see  how  the  process  can 
well  be  improved  upon. 
The  mere  fact  that  increased  dilution  increases  the  yield  of  peptone 
is  not,  in  my  opinion,  sufficient  reason  for  condemning  the  process. 
As  the  conditions  prevailing  in  the  stomach  of  a  full  grown  man  do 
not  differ  materially  as  to  dilution  from  day  to  day,  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  pepsins  of  varying  strength  administered  to  such  a  person  will 
only  perform  a  certain  amount  of  Avork  and  no  more,  and  that,  conse- 
quently, the  results  obtained  by  this  test  more  closely  resemble  the 
conditions  prevailing  inside  the  stomach  than  any  other. 
In  conclusion,  it  will  be  seen  that  all  the  tests  mentioned  in  this 
paper  are  subject  to  faults  and  imperfections,  some  having  more  than 
others ;  and,  therefore,  all  we  can  do  under  the  present  unsatisfactory 
state  of  affairs  is  to  select  the  one  which  is  least  objectionable,  and 
this,  in  my  opinion,  is  the  Kremel  test. 
Condurango.— Professor  Oser,  of  Vienna,  who  has  been  making  trials 
of  condurango  bark  in  carcinoma  and  other  diseases  of  the  stomach,  finds 
that  it  has  an  excellent  effect  on  the  appetite  and  that  it  relieves  over-sen- 
sitiveness. Some  patients  can  take  it  for  months  without  any  unpleasant 
symptoms,  while  in  others  it  soon  sets  up  nausea,  which  cannot  be  pre- 
vented either  by  the  simultaneous  administration  of  correctives  or  by  the 
employment  of  different  preparations  of  the  bark,  such  as  the  vinum  or  the 
liquor.  Condurango  appears  to  Professor  Oser  to  deserve  a  place  in  our 
materia  medica  as  a  symptomatic  remedy,  but  as  to  its  exerting  any  specific 
action  on  malignant  disease,  he  still  holds  to  his  own  dictum  that  the  only 
hope  of  cure  in  cancer  of  the  stomach  by  means  of  drugs  lies  in  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  mistaken  diagnosis. — Jour.  Am.  Med.  Assoc. ;  Lancet,  May  19, 1888. 
