COMPOUND  SYRUP  OF  YELLOW  DOCK  AND  SAKSAPAMLLA.  415 
individuals  throughout  the  city,  and  prepared,  many  of  them,  by 
different  manufacturers. 
Of  ten  specimens,  some  of  which  were  imported,  which  he  ex- 
amined, all  were  found  to  contain  arsenic  with  the  exception  of 
two. 
He  did  not  experiment  to  ascertain  the  percentage,  but  inferred 
it  to  be  small,  too  much  so,  he  presumed,  to  have  any  material 
effect,  except  in  long  continued  and  unusually  large  doses.  It 
was  not  shown  in  this  case,  nor  was  it  probable  that  enough  could 
have  been  taken  in  that  way  to  produce  the  vomiting  and  purg- 
ing, much  less  the  fatal  result.  It  was  to  be  remembered  also, 
that  the  symptoms  attributed  afterwards  to  poisoning,  had  begun 
and  continued  for  some  time  before  the  bismuth  had  been  taken. 
He  then  exhibited  to  the  College  the  result  of  some  of  his 
analyses  in  the  arsenical  rings  deposited  within  the  tubes  em- 
ployed. 
He  remarked  further  that  the  druggists  applied  to  for  speci- 
mens or  samples  did  not  appear  to  be  aware  of  any  liability  to 
this  kind  of  impurity  in  subnitrate  of  bismuth,  a  fact  which  ren- 
dered it  still  more  desirable  that  the  subject  should  be  brought 
before  the  notice  of  the  College — since  the  usual  mode  of  prepar- 
ing the  subnitrate,  unless  great  care  was  taken  in  washing  the 
product,  rather  favored  the  presence  of  arsenic  acid,  unless  the 
bismuth  from  which  it  is  prepared  be  pure. — Trans.  Coll.  Phys. 
of  Philad.y  in  Am.  Journ.  of  Med.  Sciences. 
COMPOUND  SYRUP  OF  YELLOW  DOCK  AND  SARSAPARILLA. 
By  F.  Stearns. 
The  use  of  the  root  of  Humex  crispus  ^Yellow  Dock)  has 
greatly  increased,  during  a  few  years  past,  in  the  treatment  of 
scrofulous  and  syphilitic  affections,  by  numerous  physicians 
throughout  the  northwest. 
I  believe  the  Yellow  Dock  is  generally  preferred,  in  place  of 
the  Water  Dock  Britannica),  and  Blunt-leaved  Dock  (i?. 
obtusifolius) ;  these  last,  however,  being  the  only  members  of  the 
^enus  Eumex  recognised  in  our  Pharmacopoeia. 
