68 
Hyoscyamus  Niger. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
<-   February,  19 19. 
vidual  druggists  in  the  work  of  this  committee  which  is  under  the 
able  chairmanship  of  Frank  H.  Fredericks,  No.  1005  Mercantile  Li- 
brary Building,  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  If  you  are  in  a  position  to  assist 
the  committee  in  their  work,  in  any  way  whatever,  do  not  fail  to 
communicate  with  the  chairman. 
The  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy  has  likewise  appointed  a 
committee  with  Prof.  Freeman  P.  Stroup  as  chairman  to  consider 
not  only  the  question  of  the  reestablishment  of  its  own  graduates 
who  have  been  in  the  military  service,  but  likewise  to  cooperate  with 
the  Committee  of  the  A.  Ph.  A.  and  any  other  organizations  or  move- 
ments having  as  the  object  in  view  the  assisting  of  soldiers  and 
sailors  to  secure  employement  in  the  drug  trade  or  allied  industries. 
G.  M.  B, 
HYOSCYAMUS  NIGER. 
By  George  P.  Koch,  Ph.D. 
Introduction. 
Due  to  the  fact  that  many  crude  drugs  cannot  be  secured  from 
foreign  countries  at  the  present  time,  the  cultivation  of  medicinal 
plants  in  the  United  States  has  been  greatly  stimulated.  In  as  much 
as  the  methods  of  propagation  of  the  various  medicinal  plants  are 
still  quite  imperfect,  much  research  is  still  necessary  in  order  that 
such  crops  may  be  grown  successfully.  Several  investigators  have 
worked  on  various  phases  of  the  medicinal  plant  culture,  but  as  yet 
there  seems  to  be  an  insufficient  amount  of  data  available  by  which 
a  more  or  less  inexperienced  individual  can  go  ahead  and  be  success- 
ful in  the  production  of  such  a  crop.  A  very  important  factor  in 
growing  medicinal  plants  in  the  United  States,  where  the  cost  of 
labor  is  so  great,  is  the  application  of  methods  whereby  such  crops 
can  be  grown  on  a  comparatively  large  scale,  thus  bringing  into  play 
the  use  of  labor  saving  implements  as  much  as  possible  (4). 
The  production  of  a  crop  running  as  high  as  possible  in  alkaloids 
and  securing  this  crop  as  cheaply  as  possible,  determines  the  extent 
to  which  such  procedures  would  be  successful.  In  commercial 
culture,  Hyoscyamus  niger  seems  to  be  a  plant  with  which  the 
greatest  amount  of  difficulty  has  been  experienced,  and  as  yet,  is 
grown  very  little  in  this  country.    Stockberger  (10)  contends  that 
