Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Dec,  1880. 
Varieties. 
6.51 
Coca.— Concerning  this  remedy,  which  has  lately  been  prominently  before  the 
profession,  Dr.  D.  H.  M'Donald,  of  Quincy,  Ind.,  writes  to  the  "  Louisville  Medi- 
cal News,"  July  17th,  1880: 
"There  can  be  no  question  of  the  potency  of  coca,  and  in  the  hands  of  the 
intelligent  physician  much  good  may  be  expected  from  its  use.  But  do  take  your 
trenchant  pen  and  give  us  a  slashing  article  against  the  indiscriminate  use  of  it.  You 
know  a  confirmed  chewer  of  coca  is  called  a  coquero.  Among  the  Spanish  Amer- 
icans a  coquero  is  considered  hopelessly  lost,  with  no  prospect  of  reformation. 
Look  at  the  picture  drawn  by  Von  Tschudi :  '  The  inveterate  coquero  is  known  at 
first  glance.  His  unsteady  gait,  his  yellow  skin,  his  dim  and  sunken  eyes  encircled 
by  a  purple  ring,  his  quivering  lips,  and  his  general  apathy,  all  bear  evidence  of  the 
baneful  effects  of  the  coca  juice,  when  taken  in  excess.' 
"Surely  this  picture  is  enough  to  startle  any  one:  but  I  know  that  some  cannot 
be  startled  if  there  is  a  prospect  of  satisfying  an  appetite  5  therefore  the  need  of  a 
warning  in  time,  to  the  profession  as  well  as  the  masses,  against  the  indiscriminate 
use  of  a  drug  which  is  apt  to  be  followed  by  the  blasted  life  of  the  coquero." 
Separating  Wheat  from  Chaff. — Mr.  Humpidge  contributes,  in  London  "Na- 
ture," a  very  timely  resume  of  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  by  the  array  of 
new  (?)  elements,  the  announcements  of  which  were  lately  heralded  to  the  chemical 
world  with  such  startling  rapidity  that  the  question  of  their  genuineness  has  since 
been  involved  in  much  doubt.    We  condense  in  the  following  his  conclusions  : 
0[  Da^yum,  which  was  announced  in  July,  1877,  by  Sergius  Kern,  as  a  new 
metal  belonging  to  the  platinum  group,  the  author  thinks  that  the  investigator 
iailed  to  take  the  necessary  precautions  to  get  rid  of  iron  and  the  platinum  metals, 
or  at  least  that  he  dots  not  state  the  means  he  adopted  to  do  so.  He  holds,  there- 
fore, that  this  alleged  discovery  may  be  safely  ignored. 
The  numerous  metals  of  the  yttrium  group  that  have  been  announced  are  more 
difficult  to  discriminate  between,  because  of  their  close  relationship. 
He  goes  into  considerable  detail  in  analyzing  the  claims  of  these  numerous 
announcements  to  recognition,  and  presents  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  of 
them  in  the  following  scheme,  which  shows  their  status  at  a  glance  : 
Symbol  and  atomic 
weight.  Discouerer. 
Sc  =  45    .  .  Nilson. 
Y  =  89  .  Bunsen  and  Cleve. 
Pp==:iii  .  Delafontaine. 
(  Atomic  weight  ]  Soret. 
I  undetermined  J  Cleve. 
f  Atomic  weight  I  Sorer. 
I  undetermined  j  Cl^ve. 
Tr  =  147  .     Marignac,  ^ 
At.  w'lit  und't'md  Boisbaudran. 
Dp  =159  .  Delafontaine. 
i49'4  .  .  Marignac. 
156-7         .  .  Marignac. 
Er       .  .  Mosander. 
Yb  =  172  .  Marignac. 
Probably 
identical. 
Probably 
identical, 
Probably 
identical 
Name. 
Scandium  (doubtful) 
Yttrium 
(  Phillipium 
<  Unnamed  metal  of  Soret 
Thulium 
r  X  of  Soret 
X  Holmium 
(  Terbium 
(  Samarium  (doubtful) 
Decipium  (doubtful) 
[Y/J 
Y  a 
Erbium 
Ytterbium   .  . 
