Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  » 
April,  1880.  J 
Varieties, 
221 
tion,  M.  Rabuteau  believed  that  it  should  act  as'a  dialytic  purgative  when  given  by 
the  mouth.  He  therefore  administered  it  to  two  patients  5  in  one  case  a  woman  took 
15  grams  in  two  doses,  when  it  produced  three  stools,  of  which  two  were  copious 
in  the  second  a  man  took  18  grams,  resulting  in  two  stools  without  colic.  The  taste 
of  the  purgative  is  hardly  perceptible,  but  it  is  difficult  to  preserve  it. —  Chicago  Med. 
Jour,  and  Exam.,  March,  1880. 
Thymolin  Soap  is  a  soap  designed  especially  for  the  antiseptic  cleansing  of  phy- 
sicians^ instruments.  The  soap  contains  a  sufficient  quantity  of  the  disinfectant,  and 
the  odor  of  the  thymolin  is  by  no  means  unpleasant.  In  this  day  when  so  much  is 
said  respecting  the  transmission  of  disease  by  surgical  instruments  it  will  be  a  satis- 
faction to  make  use  of  an  agent  in  cleansing  them,  which  will  at  least  assist  in  their 
disinfection. —  Chicago  Medical  Jour,  and  Exam. — Virginia  Med  Monthly^  Dec  ,  1 879. 
Eucalyptus.— In  the  Italian  Medical  Gazette  R.  Rudolph  reports  eucalyptus 
as  a  specific  for  acute  coryza,  and  declares  that  chewing  the  twigs  and  swallowing 
saliva  secreted  will  result  in  rapid  relief.  His  experience  includes  experiments  upon 
his  patients  and  upon  himself  It  is  probable  that  the  fluid  extract  would  be  equally 
efficacious  —  Chicago  Med.  Gazette,  Feb.  20,  1880. 
Paper  Pulp  from  Poplar  Wood. — The  Worcester  "Spy"  says:  It  surprises 
people  to  see  the  great  logs  of  poplar  wood  go  through  the  powerful  machine  at  the 
Connecticut  river  pulp  mill  at  Holyoke.  The  wood  as  it  is  brought  to  the  mill  is 
about  the  size  of  cord  wood  used  for  fuel,  and  in  this  shape  the  machine  takes  it  and 
gnaws  it  up  very  fine  So  rapidly  does  this  process  go  that  the  machine  eats  about 
seven  and  a  half  cords  of  wood  a  day,  and  this  makes  between  three  and  four  tons  of 
pulp.  After  coming  from  the  machine  the  wood  is  put  into  vats  and  reduced  by  the 
action  of  chemicals.  It  is  used  for  the  manufacture  of  news  and  book  paper,  and 
pulp  made  from  spruce  wood,  which  has  more  fibre  than  poplar,  is  sometimes  used 
in  the  cheaper  grades  of  writing  paper.  Spruce  is  harder  to  reduce  to  pulp  than  poplar, 
and  but  little  of  it  is  used.  The  poplar  trees  in  this  vicinity  have  long  since  given 
out,  and  the  wood  is  now  mostly  brought  from  Canada. — Gaillavd'^s  Med.  Journ., 
Feb  ,  1880. 
Jamaica  Dogwood  (Piscidia  erythrina),  is  recommended  in  the  "  Pharmaceu- 
tical Journal "  as  a  powerful  narcotic,  capable  of  producing  sleep  and  relieving  pain 
in  an  extraordinary  manner.  It  has  been  used  as  an  anodyne  in  toothache,  curing 
the  pain  when  introduced  upon  a  dossil  of  cotton  into  the  carious  tooth.  In  Brazil 
it  has  an  established  reputation  as  a  nervous  sedative.  Its  action  seems  to  be  over 
the  nerve  centers  j  it  causes  sleep  without  producing  the  cerebral  hyperaemia  which 
succeeds  opium  and  the  active  principles  extracted  therefrom.  The  sleep  is  tranquil 
and  refreshing  5  It  soothes  bronchial  cough  and  moderates  the  paroxysm  of  asthma 
and  nervous  coughs.  It  has  been  used  with  success  in  chronic  hepatitis  and  obstruc- 
tions of  the  liver. 
The  idiosyncrasies  encountered  in  many  cases  in  regard  to  the  action  of  opium  and 
its  alkaloids  compel  the  profession  to  seek  an  anodyne  and  hypnotic  in  other  agents 
