564       Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy. 
Jour.  Pharm. 
ovember,  1901. 
The  unsupported  word  of  the  medical  press  can  be  scarcely  taken 
as  their  opinions  are  too  strongly  influenced  by  their  advertising 
pages  and  reports  of  individual  workers  are  of  little  value,  as  the 
finding  of  such  data  means  search  through  a  hundred  journals. 
What  the  practitioner  needs  is  an  authoritative  publication  relat- 
ing to  this  subject  and  to  this  subject  only,  and  entirely  uninfluenced 
by  advertisements. 
How  can  this  be  accomplished  ? 
The  writer  hopes  to  see  the  day  when  the  paternal  German  gov- 
ernment will  establish  an  institute  of  medical  testing,  similar  to  the 
present  Imperial  Serum-Testing  Institute,  and  like  the  pure  food 
laboratories  scattered  throughout  his  country;  that  at  this  institute 
all  new  remedies  be  tested  chemically,  clinically  and  pharmacologi- 
cally, and  that  only  those  medicaments  receiving  the  approval  of  the 
institute  be  permitted  sale  in  the  empire. 
That  failing  (or  postponed)  he  suggests  that  the  reform  be 
inaugurated  by  the  Naturalists'  Society  ;  that  this  association  seek 
the  aid  of  its  members  and  others — pharmacologists,  surgeons, 
gynecologists  and  other  medical  specialists,  chemists,  bacteriologists, 
etc.,  begging  reports  on  each  new  medicine  they  have  used.  A 
committee  is  then  to  compile  the  data  received  and  publish  same  for 
the  benefit  of  the  medical  profession.  It  is  assumed  that  physicians 
will  then  prescribe  only  those  medicines  recommended  by  the  asso- 
ciation— a  rather  doubtful  assumption.  H.  V.  Arny. 
OVULA  GLYCERINI. 
Por  gynecological  purposes,  round  suppositories  containing  about 
16  grammes  glycerin  and  appropriate  medicaments  are  popular  in 
France.  The  base  of  these  are  made,  according  to  J.  Hofmann,  as 
follows:  Fifty  grammes  gelatin  is  mixed  with  100  grammes  water 
and  250  grammes  glycerin,  warmed  on  water  bath  till  dissolved  and 
the  water  has  evaporated,  an  addition  150  grammes  glycerin  added, 
as  well  as  the  medicating  agent,  and  the  melted  mass  poured  into 
moulds  and  allowed  to  solidify. — Ph.  Weekbl.  through  Schw.  Woch.  f. 
Ch.  u.  Ph.,  1901,  143.  H.  V.  A. 
CRYOSCOPY. 
An  interesting  resume  of  this  study,  which  is  destined  to  have 
pharmaceutical  importance,  is  found  in  a  paper  by  Ardin  Delteil 
{Schw.   Woch.  Ch.  u.  Ph.,  1901,  195)  in  which  the  significance  of 
