ANoVimbef,hi9or"}    Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.  563 
specimen  I  am  enabled  to  present  to  the  museum  of  this  college 
through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Robert  Pursel,  is  a  remarkably  distinct 
example.  In  this  part  of  the  United  States  it  has  been  the  general 
custom  to  use  the  Northern,  or  X.  Americanum,  in  the  manufacture 
of  pharmaceutical  preparations ;  this  selection  being  due,  no  doubt, 
to  the  fact  that  this  variety  is  generally  supplied  by  jobbers  upon 
orders  for  "prickly  ash  bark." 
There  is  a  wide  difference  in  the  pharmacological  value  of  the 
two  barks;  the  southern  or  X.  Clava-Hercules  being  far  richer  in 
the  extractives  which  give  the  bark  its  medicinal  value.  As  a  prac- 
tical illustration  of  this  difference  I  have  prepared  two  samples  of 
the  wine  from  typical  specimens  of  each  variety,  and  the  color, 
pungency  and  bitterness  are  easily  differentiated  upon  comparison. 
This  difference  is  also  readily  noted  upon  chewing  a  portion  of  each 
variety.  Another  point  noted  in  the  manufacture  of  the  wine,  which 
is  a  50  per  cent,  preparation,  is  that  in  the  case  of  the  northern 
variety  a  fairly  good  exhaustion  of  the  drug  is  secured  by  good 
sherry,  but  in  the  case  of  the  southern  variety  simply  saturation 
occurs  without  thorough  exhaustion,  and  the  marc  retains  distinct 
identity. 
Prickly  ash  has  been  prescribed  frequently  in  Philadelphia  as  a 
uterine  tonic  and  stimulant  and  also  used  externally  as  a  counter- 
irritant  and  for  all  its  therapeutic  uses  the  southern  prickly  ash 
would  seem  to  be  more  satisfactory  than  its  northern  relative. 
Philadelphia,  October  15,  1901. 
RECENT  LITERATURE  RELATING  TO  PHARMACY. 
VALUATION  OF  NEW  REMEDIES. 
Professor  Kobert,  of  Rostock,  read  a  striking  paper  on  the  above 
subject  at  the  German  Naturalists'  Convention  (Aerzt.  Vereinsblatt 
fur  Deutsche  1900,  435).  He  calls  attention  to  the  ever-increasing 
number  of  new  remedies,  their  personal  literature  teeming  with 
highly  embellished  testimonials,  and  withal  how  very  little  the  prac- 
ticing physician  knows  of  their  real  value.  He  then  asks  if  authori- 
tative judgment  of  these  remedies  based  on  clinic,  chemical  and 
pharmacological  examinations  is  possible,  and  how  such  judgment 
is  best  obtained. 
