58  Current  Literature.  {AlT 
January,  1921. 
CURRENT  LITERATURE 
MEDICAL  AND  PHARMACEUTICAL  NOTES. 
Fatal  Case  of  Amylene  Hydrate  Poisoning. — Jacobi  and 
Speer  report  what,  as  far  as  they  know,  is  the  only  case  of  fatal 
tertiary  amy  1  alcohol  poisoning  on  record.  Six  grams  of  amylene 
hydrate  as  an  enema  had  been  prescribed  for  an  epileptic,  age 
22,  as  he  was  having  series  of  seizures  that  did  not  respond  to 
bromides  or  other  remedies.  Twenty-two  hours  later,  it  was  dis- 
covered that  through  a  mistake  of  the  nurse  the  patient  had  been 
given  35  c.  c.  in  place  of  6  gm.  The  twenty-fourth  hour  edema 
of  the  lung  and  cardiac  insufficiency  were  present.  After  the  forty- 
second  hour,  gastric  hemorrhage  occurred  (about  one  litre  of  a 
black,  coffee-ground-like  substance).  Shortly  afterward  the  re- 
flexes returned,  beginning  with  the  plantar  reflex.  The  intoxica- 
tion seemed  to  be  overcome,  but  seven  hours  later  death  occurred, 
accompanied  by  a  rise  of  temperature.  Ancker  reported  in  1892  a 
woman's  attempt  at  suicide  by  taking  27  gm.  of  amylene  hydrate, 
approximately  the  same  amount  that  this  patient  received.  The 
woman  recovered,  and  the  writers  think  that  their  patient  would  in 
all  probability  have  recovered  from  the  intoxication  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  severe  complication  of  influenzal  pneumonia.  (From 
Therapeutische  Halbmonatshefte,  Berlin,  through  Jour.  Amer.  Med. 
Assoc.,  December  4,  1920.) 
Action  of  Sodium  Oleate  on  Gonococcus. — Sodium  oleate 
was  found  by  Davis  and  Swartz  J:o  have  a  definite  germicidal 
value  for  the  gonococcus.  This  value  is  increased,  where  uncoagu- 
lated  protein  is  present,  by  the  addition  of  0.5  boric  acid.  The 
presence  of  small  sublethal  quantities  of  sodium  oleate,  1 :8,ooo, 
increases  the  germicidal  action  of  many  drugs  against  the  gonococ- 
cus. With  others  it  is  without  effect.  Sodium  oleate  with  boric 
acid  is  suggested  as  an  adjuvant  to  other  drugs  in  the  treatment 
and  prophylaxis  of  gonorrhea.  (From  Jour,  of  Urology,  Balti- 
more, through  Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Assoc.,  December  11,  1920.) 
