264 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1913. 
An  Opium  Glucoside. — Glucosides  closely  resembling  alka- 
loids, which  have  been  termed  glyco-alkaloids,  are  known,  such  as 
solanin  and  achillein.  A  similar  body,  although  not  occurring  natu- 
rally in  opium,  can  be  formed  by  treating  morphine  in  soda  solution 
with  aceto-bromglucose  in  acetone  solution.  The  resulting  gluco- 
side is  crystallized  from  50  per  cent,  alcohol,  and  forms  bitter  tasting 
needles  of  the  formula  C^H^NOaCgHnOgE^O.  (Chem.  and 
Druggist,  Mar.  15,  191 3.) 
Bacterial  Vaccine  Therapy:  Its  Indications  and  Limita- 
tions.— Under  the  foregoing  title  a  special  article  is  appearing  in 
the  Jour.  A.  M.  A.,  continued  from  week  to  week,  that  is  of  much 
interest  and  could  be  read  with  much  profit  by  pharmacists  in 
general. 
Belladonna  Cultivation  in  California. — Two  crops  of 
leaves  were  harvested  last  year ;  the  leaves  contained  considerable 
stems,  but  the  percentage  of  alkaloids  present  was  much  higher 
than  official  requirements,  some  being  as  high  as  0.84  per  cent.,  the 
official  minimum  being  0.30  per  cent.  The  shipment  of  belladonna 
from  California  was  the  first  in  the  history  of  this  country.  {Pacific 
Druggist. ) 
"  Big  Business  "  and  Science. — Under  the  foregoing  title  an 
editorial  in  the  Journal  of  the  A.  M.  A.  has  this  to  say:  "Much 
has  been  written  on  how  science  and  commercial  industries  (espe- 
cially chemical  industries)  have  been  of  mutual  aid  in  Germany, 
and  regrets  have  been  expressed  that  alliances  of  this  nature  are 
not  more  frequent  in  the  United  States.  Physicians  seeking  for 
impartial  accounts  of  new  drugs,  however,  often  have  occasion  to 
wish  that  many  of  the  communications  which  appear  in  German 
medical  journals  had  been  written  by  those  less  dependent  on  man- 
ufacturers. How  little  the  big  German  chemical  interests  hesitate 
to*  sacrifice  science  for  the  sake  of  '  business,'  moreover,  is  strikingly 
illustrated  by  a  remark  of  Ostwald,  a  man  who  has  probably  done 
more  for  both  German  science  and  chemical  industry  than  any  other 
one  living.  Ostwald  for  many  years  has  been  endeavoring  to  se- 
cure the  establishment  of  an  international  institute  of  chemistry, 
one  of  the  functions  of  which  is  to  be  the  maintenance  of  a  card 
index  of  all  the  discoveries  in  chemistry  so  that  an  investigator 
anywhere  in  the  world  can  have  instant  access  to  everything  which 
has  been  written  on  a  particular  subject  in  which  he  may  be  in- 
terested. Violent  opposition  to  this  scheme,  according  to  OstwaM, 
has  developed  on  the  part  of  the  big  chemical  houses  of  Germany, 
♦ 
