'"'slZ\!t:'°  }  Varieties.  475 
a  drachm  of  distilled  water.  The  urine  may  be  added  to  the  solution  or  vice  'versa. 
If  there  be  a  trace  of  albumen  the  urine  will  immediately  become  turbid  and  of  a 
milky-white  color. — Brit.  Med.  Journ.,  May,  1880,  from  Ibid. 
Strychnia  Successfully  Antidoted  by  Hydrate  of  Chloral. — A  case  is  reported 
in  the  "  British  Medical  Journal  "  by  George  Gray,  M.  D.,  of  strychnia  poison  suc- 
cessfully antidoted  by  chloral  hydrate.  The  patient  bought  20  grains  of  strychnia 
to  poison  rats  with.  He  stirred  it  in  a  glass  of  whiskey  and  drank  it  all.  Dr.  Gray 
administered  2  drachms  of  chloral  hydrate  in  solution,  with  much  difficulty,  but  it 
had  the  desired  effect.  Two  days  afterward  he  was  at  his  usual  work. — A^.  CarO' 
Una  Med.  Journ.y  July,  1880. 
Quinamine. — Again  the  medical  world  has  been  presented  with  a  new  conception 
called  Quinamine,  said  to  be  uncrystallizable  quinia,  and  comprising  other  valuable 
constituents  of  Peruvian  bark.  When  will  this  diabolism  cease,  and  when  will  the 
traffickers  in  new  remedyism  ever  let  up  in  their  •  schemes  of  crowding  into  the 
van  their  tiresome  innovations,  and  endeavoring  to  compel  physicians  to  prescribe 
and  use  their  silly  and  useless  nostrums  }  It  is  remarkable  what  untiring  elasticity 
and  inexhaustible  scope  some  well-known  and  favorite  drugs  possess,  and  especially 
it  is  the  case  of  cinchona  bark.  Since  its  introduction  as  a  curative  agent  its  natural 
features  and  general  characteristics  have  been  contorted  into  numberless  and  name- 
less shapes,  with  a  product  of  fantastic  alkaloids,  peculiar  approximations,  and  other 
active  principles,  until  the  individual  notation  would  make  a  list  as  prolific  as  the 
tail  of  a  comet.  We  have  quinidia,  cinchonidia,  quinamina,  apoquinamia,  quina- 
midia,  quinamicia,  monoquimamicia,  monocinchonidia,  and  all  the  twisted  idioms 
of  our  extensive  tongue  have  savored  this  boundless  and  seeming  inexhaustible  dish 
of  unrelishable  dialect.  And  now  another  has  displayed  and  unturled  its  feelers  for 
patronage  in  this  principle  called  Quinamine,  claiming  to  embody  all  the  virtues  of 
Peruvian  bark,  and  at  an  alarming  low  value.  We  trust  that  physicians  will  resent 
and  disfavor  this  classic  procession  of  meaningless  remedies  and  give  no  encourage- 
ment to  the  missionaries  sent  out  for  their  introduction  j  for  it  is  through  the  medium 
of  our  medical  men  that  we  shall  thwart  the  bombardment  of  these  damaging  delu- 
sions.— Western  Lancet^  July,  1880. 
Chian  Turpentine. — Much  interest  hai  been  taken  in  the  subject  of  Chian  tur- 
pentine, from  an  important  series  of  investigations  conducted  at  the  Queen's  Hos" 
pital,  Birmingham,  as  to  a  new  method  in  the  treatment  of  cancer  by  Mr.  John  Clay, 
obstetric  surgeon  to  the  hospital.  This  terrible  malady  has  always  been  ungovern- 
able by  medical  treatment,  but  the  inquiries  and  experiments,  led  by  Mr.  Clay, 
introduce  the  belief  that  by  the  use  of  this  carbo-hydrate  the  speedy  disappearance 
of  what  is  usually  termed  the  cancerous  infiltration  can  be  obtained,  and  thereby  the 
further  development  of  the  tumor  arrested  Doubtless  every  pharmacist  has  already 
learned  from  his  books  of  reference  that  it  is  the  product  of  the  terebinth,  pistacia 
terebinthus,  a  tree  found  in  all  parts  of  the  Mediterranean  5  naturally  it  is  of  a  very 
stiff  consistence,  and  quite  often  firm  and  solid.  It  has  a  cloudy  and  sometimes 
opaque  appearance  and  of  a  greenish-gray  or  greenish-yellow  hue.     Its  odor  is  very 
