8 
Preparations  of  Ergot. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1      Jan.,  1888. 
30  parts  with  common  olive  oil  60  parts,  stirring  constantly  until  tlie 
color  becomes  blackish-brown  ;  add  yellow  wax  15  parts,  and  camphor 
1  part,  rubbed  with  a  little  olive  oil.  The  plaster  is  blackish-brown, 
tenacious  and  has  the  odor  of  camphor. 
(To  be  continued.) 
PKEPAKATIONS  OF  ERGOT,  BASED  UPON  THE  LATEST 
SCIENTIFIC  INVESTIGATIOiNS  OF  ITS  MOST  VALU- 
ABLE MEDICINAL  CONSTITUENTS^ 
By  C.  S.  Hallberg,  Chicago. 
Ergot  of  rye  ranks  undoubtedly  among  our  most  largely  used  and 
important  remedies.  Like  opium  and  cinchona,  it  plays  a  role  in 
relieving  human  suiFering,  specific  in  its  character  and  not  easily  dis- 
placed by  any  other  agent.  But  unlike  these,  although  the  history  of 
ergot  is  even  more  ancient  and  in  its  universal  occurrence  is  familiar  even 
to  the  less  well  informed,  our  chemical  and  pharmaceutical  knowledge 
of  it  is  far  behind  that  of  these  two  contemporaries.  So  much  more 
is  this  to  be  wondered  at  since,  owing  to  its  occurrence  where  it  is 
encountered  every  day,  and  its  occasional  presence  in  the  staff  of  life" 
has  been  followed  by  the  most  serious  consequences.  Long  after  its 
therapeutic  value  was  conceded  its  constituents  were  little  known,  very 
erroneous  conclusions  were  arrived  at  by  those  to  whom  the  credit  of 
its  first  chemical  investigation  is  due  and  upon  these  were  based  pro- 
cesses for  the  various  pharmaceutical  preparations.  It  is  only  necessary 
to  compare  the  product  ergotin,  formulated  by  Bonjean  and  Wig- 
gers  respectively,  to  see  the  lack  of  uniformity  in  the  views  held  by 
these  investigators.  These  two  processes  were  so  radically  different 
that  the  products  were  equally  distinct  in  physical  and  therapeutic  pro- 
perties. The  first  mentioned  aimed  at  presenting  those  constituents 
soluble  in  diluted  alcohol  only^  as  being  of  the  most  value,  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  fixed  oil,  alcoholic  extraction  and  other  well  recognized 
disturbing  principles ;  in  Wiggers's  process  the  matter  soluble  in  diluted 
alcohol,  considered  the  most  important  by  Bonjean,  was  rejected  and 
the  poisonous  products  claimed  to  represent  the  most  valuable  medicinal 
properties  of  the  drug.  Although  ergot  is  largely  obtained  in  this 
country,  it  is  small  in  grain  and  cannot  favorably  compare  with  the 
^  Read  at  the  third  annual  meeting  of  the  Illinois  Pharmaceutical  Asso- 
ciation. 
