Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
March,  1921.  J 
Comment  on  the  Paper. 
231 
snake  venin  are  16.6  per  cent,  when  treated  with  echinacea  as  com- 
pared to  zero  when  the  animals  are  not  so  treated. 
From  a  further  study  of  the  table  it  is  learned  that  the  average 
period  of  survival  of  the  controls  was  2.33  days,  while  the  average 
period  of  survival  of  the  echinacea  treated  animals  which  died  was 
3  days,  showing  a  perceptible  increase  in  the  survival  period  of 
echinacea  treated  animals  over  those  untreated. 
One  of  the  authors'  conclusions  is  that  "neither  of  the  echina- 
cea preparations  appeared  to  influence  the  course  of  the  poisoning," 
but  judged  by  the  methods  of  deduction  ordinarily  employed  by 
clinicians,  it  might  fairly  be  urged  that  the  experiments,  though 
few  in  number,  tend  to  substantiate  the  claim  that  echinacea  is  of 
value  in  the  treatment  of  rattlesnake  bites. 
In  the  tuberculosis  experiments  a  total  of  eight  guinea-pigs 
were  inoculated  with  human  type  tuberculosis  organisms. 
The  control  animals  survived  for  an  average  period  of  23  days 
after  receiving  the  culture,  while  the  average  survival  period  of  the 
animals  receiving  echinacea  treatment  was  31.33  days,  an  average 
increase  of  8.33  days  over  the  survival  period  of  the  untreated  ani- 
mals. 
In  the  same  series  of  experiments  the  progressive  loss  of  weight 
of  the  animals  inoculated  with  tuberculosis  culture  was  noted.  In 
the  control  animals  the  loss  of  weight  prior  to  death  averaged 
202.5  gm.  for  each  animal,  while  in  the  echinacea  treated  animals, 
though  living  much  longer,  the  loss  in  weight  prior  to  death  aver- 
aged 156.6  gm.  for  each  animal,  or  the  average  loss  in  weight  of 
the  echinacea  treated  animals  was  45.9  gm.  less  than  the  loss  in 
weight  of  those  not  so  treated. 
The  authors  conclude  that  "from  these  results  it  does  not  seem 
probable  that  either  fluid  extract  echinacea  or  the  Subculoyd  Inula 
and  Echinacea  is  of  value  in  the  treatment  of  tuberculosis,"  while 
a  clinician  might  fairly  claim  that  the  results  show  a  marked  effect 
of  echinacea,  both  in  prolonging  the  life  of  the  animal  and  in 
retarding  the  progressive  loss  in  weight. 
In  the  experiments  with  a  trypanosomiasis  (dourine),  the 
guinea-pigs,  were  inoculated  with  a  suspension  of  fresh  blood  from 
rats  infected  with  Trypanosoma  eqniperdum.  All  of  the  inoculated 
animals  died,  but  while  the  average  survival  period  of  the  controls, 
as  shown  by  the  table,  was  51  days,  the  average  survival  period  of 
