AmMa?chr;  iP9i3m" }   Standardization  of  Digitalis  Bodies.  113 
It  is  unnecessary  to  give  a  longer  series  of  tests  on  frogs  as  no 
concordant  results  could  be  obtained  by  the  method.  Death  in 
many  of  the  other  frogs  used  in  which  the  dose  was  somewhere 
within  the  limits  stated  above,  and  where  absorption  was  complete, 
was  delayed  much  beyond  the  hour,  or  the  heart  was  found  beating 
feebly  with  the  ventricles  in  a  condition  of  mid-diastole ;  in  still 
others  the  ventricles  were  found  in  complete  diastole.  The  frogs 
were  standardized  against  ouabain  and  reacted  normally,  All  of 
them  were  between  20  and  30  grams  in  weight,  and  all  were  males 
and  healthy. 
Weis 14  experienced  similar  difficulty  with  the  one  hour  frog 
method  in  testing  liquid  digalen,  and  found  that  glycerin  in  dilute 
solution  retards  absorption  markedly.  Tests  which  we  made  with 
crystalline  digitoxin  prepared  in  a  menstruum  similar  to  that  of 
digalen  showed  a  similar  inhibitory  action  of  the  glycerin  on 
absorption,  with  the  result  that  the  dose  determined  was  much  too 
high.  The  frog  method  is  further  unsuited  for  the  testing  of  this 
preparation  (Digalen)  because  the  smallest  dose  which  would  kill 
the  animals  at  all  was- more  than  one.  c.c.  for  a  frog  of  average 
size,  ranging  up  to  2.5  c.c.  in  some  cases.  In  comparison  with  these 
results  those  obtained  by  the  cat  method  are  found  to  be  very  con- 
cordant and  satisfactory.  The  greatest  variation  with  specimen  A 
is  5.6  per  cent,  of  the  average  dose,  and  in  B  only  1.4  per  cent.,  while 
in  C  one  animal  fell  23.0  per  cent,  below  the  average;  with  this 
latter  discarded  the  maximum  variation  is  only  8  per  cent,  of  the 
average  dose.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  digalen,  which  is  said 
to  consist  of  amorphous  digitoxin,  and  which  seemed  so*  weak  by 
tests  on  frogs,  when  used  in  the  liquid  preparation,  was  found  to  be 
very  active  on  frogs  when  the  tablets  were  used  and  the  solution 
prepared  without  glycerin,  whereas  the  tablets  were  found  to  be 
much  weaker  when  tested  on  cats.  This  discrepancy  is  easily 
understood  if  we  suppose  that  the  rapid  absorption  of  the  glycerin- 
free  solution  hastens  the  action  on  the  frog's  heart. 
Illustrating  the  applicability  of  the  cat  method  to  the  testing  of 
very  highly  alcoholic  preparations  the  results  obtained  with  two 
samples  of  fluid  extract  of  adonis,  tested  by  both  the  direct  and  the 
combined  methods,  may  be  cited.  Together  with  this  there  is 
given  an  assay  of  the  leaf  from  which  one  of  the  fluid  extracts  was 
"Oest.  Sanitaetswesen ;  Beilage  zu  No.  22,  May  30,  1912. 
