Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
May,  1921.  $ 
The  Quinotoxin  Myth. 
337 
have  the  three  essentials,  time  only  being  necessary ;  to  some  extent 
this -also  applies  to  Kletzinsky's  reaction  (1854  )  ,  though  in  this  case 
a  further  change  probably  occurs.  During  the  early  stage  of  this 
investigation  the  use  of  a  solvent,  such  as  amyl  alcohol,  for  the  green 
product  suggested  itself,  but  from  the  above  results  it  was  not 
thought  to  be  of  any  value. 
DISCUSSION. 
The  author,  replying  to  a  question,  said  that  it  was  not  prac- 
ticable to  estimate  the  color  depths  by  the  absorption  spectra  or  by 
the  colorimeter,  owing  to  the  rapid  changes  of  color  of  the  solutions 
and  the  large  number  of  experiments  being  carried  out  at  the  same 
time. 
THE  QUIXOTOXIX  MYTH.*  f 
TORAI.D  SOLLMANN,  M.  D. 
CLEVELAND,  OHIO. 
Some  writers,  especially  in  chemical  and  pharmaceutical  jour- 
nals, have  attributed  the  toxic  effect  of  quinine  to  the  formation  of 
a  more  toxic  substance,  "quinotoxin,"  or  quinicin,  as  it  is  more  prop- 
erly called.  This  may  be  formed  from  quinine  under  suitable  con- 
ditions, especially  in  the  presence  of  free  organic  acids.  It  has  been 
assumed  that  these  conditions  would  arise  in  the  stomach,  and,  also, 
that  prescriptions  containing  quinine  and  an  organic  acid  would  be 
dangerously  incompatible. 
An  examination  of  the  data  on  which  these  assumptions  were 
based  reveals  that  these  fears  are  not  justified  by  the  facts ;  that  at 
most  insignificant  traces  of  quinotoxin  could  be  formed  in  the  body 
or  be  present  in  such  prescriptions,  and  that  the  formation  of  con- 
siderable quantities  would  not  be  dangerous. 
The  error  arose  originally  from  exaggerated  conceptions  of  the 
toxity  of  quinotoxin,  and  was  fostered  by  unproved  assumptions  as 
to  the  amounts  that  might  be  formed  under  practical  conditions. 
*Reprinted  from  the  Journ,  of  the  Amer.  Med.  Assoc.,  April  9,  1921. 
tFrom  the  Department  of  Pharmacology,  Western  Reserve  University. 
