6o 
Current.  Literature. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharra. 
I     January,  1921. 
Indican  in  Serum  as  Test  of  Kidney  Functioning. — The 
indican  content  and  urea  content  of  the  blood  serum  of  forty  patients 
with  different  diseases  are  tabulated  to  show  the  variations  with 
dieting  and  other  factors,  and  the  importance  of  hyperindicanemia 
for  the  prognosis.  With  the  simple  test  described,  it  is  possible  in 
every  case  of  uremia  to  obtain  deeper  insight  into  conditions  and 
foresee  the  outcome.  Haas  accepts  14  mg.  per  liter  as  the  limit 
of  the  normal  range;  Rosenberg's  limit  is  from  1.5  to  1.8  mg.  The 
urea  and  the  indican  content  do  not  run  parallel,  although  when 
there  is  uremia  there  is  usually  indicanemia,  and  in  one  case  hyper- 
indicanemia was  found  before  the  uremia  developed.  In  one  case 
of  contracted  kidney  the  urea  was  at  first  1.17  per  thousand,  the 
indican,  1.7  mg.  per  liter,  the  figures  on  repeating  the  tests  were 
1.06  and  1.08  urea  and  6.4  and  21.3  mg.  indican.  This  patient 
had  been  kept  on  a  protein-poor  diet.  In  another  similar  case  the 
urea  figures  were  1.46,  1.04  and  0.52  per  thousand  on  repeated 
tests,  while  the  indican  figure  kept  persistently  at  4.27  mg.,  thus 
testifying  that  the  condition  was  grave,  although  the  urea  content 
was  normal.  Both  of  these  patients  died  within  a  short  time  with 
uremic  symptoms.  The  protein-poor  diet  reduced  the  uremia  but 
did  not  modify  the  hyperindicanemia,  and  the  latter  was  thus  the 
true  basis  for  prognosis.  (From  Nederlandsch  Tijdschrift  v. 
Geneeskunde,  Amsterdam;  through  Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Assoc.,  Oc- 
tober 23,  1920.) 
Benzyl  Benzoate  in  Hypertension. — Benzyl  benzoate  has 
been  shown  to  be  a  powerful  vasodilator,  without  being  depressant 
to  the  heart  when  administered  by  mouth  in  small  doses.  Owing 
to  this  property  Macht  found  it  to  be  effective  in  the  treatment  of 
hypertension  and  angina  pectoris.  The  best  method  of  adminis- 
tering the  drug  in  such  cases  is  in  •alcoholic  solution,  which  admits 
of  rapid  absorption  and  control  of  the  dose.  A  20  per  cent,  alcoholic 
solution  of  benzyl  benzoate  was  administered  by  mouth,  either  in 
cold  water  or  milk.  The  ordinary  dose  was  found  to  be  20  or  30 
drops  of  such  a  solution,  taken  three  or  four  times  a  day.  After 
administering  to  a  patient  full  doses  of  benzyl  benzoate  and  obtain- 
ing a  desirable  therapeutic  effect,  the  reduced  pressure  could  be 
maintained  by  keeping  a  patient  on  very  small  doses  of  the  drug, 
sometimes  no  more  than  5  minims  of  the  20  per  cent,  solution.  The 
effect  of  benzyl  benzoate  on  the  blood  pressure  was  demonstrable 
