n6 
M edicinal  Earths. 
[Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\      March,  1909. 
This  is  not  the  first  instance  in  which  a  preparation  has  been 
forced  to  enter  a  Pharmacopoeia  to  be  recognized  as  an  official 
remedy.  The  admission  of  Extractum  Malti  into  the  German  Phar- 
macopoeia came  about  through  Hoff's  Malt  Extract ;  and  the  differ- 
ent specialties,  which  have  sprung  up  of  late  years  and  were  adver- 
tised and  pushed  with  truly  American  ingenuity  very  likely  made 
a  way  for  the  introduction  of  Cataplasma  Kaolini  into  the  U.  S.  P., 
which  book  is  without  doubt  the  aristocrat  among  all  the  Pharma- 
copoeias. 
This  U.  S.  P.  formula  has  since  been  adopted  by  the  Ontario 
College  of  Pharmacy  in  their  Canadian  Formulary,  1908,  and  the 
Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain  in  their  British  Pharma- 
ceutical Codex,  1907,  which  must  indeed  be  very  flattering  to  the 
U.  S.  P.  Revision  Committee. 
But  the  claim  of  the  manufacturers  of  the  various  specialties 
with  the  fantastic  trade-mark  names  that  their  preparations  are 
original  is  a  mistaken  idea,  or,  plainly  spoken,  is  false,  as  I  have 
proven  in  the  foregoing  that  clay  poultices  have  been  used  from 
the  oldest  times. 
Their  fantastic  names,  but  not  their  preparations,  are  original! 
In  Germany  preparations  of  this  kind  have  been  known  and  used 
for  a  long  time.  The  great  pharmacist  Hager  in  his  "  Pharma- 
zeutische  Praxis  "  gives  a  formula  for  Pasta  Boli  albse,  and  the 
manufacturing  pharmacist  Dieterich  in  his  "  Manuale  "  gives  for- 
mulae for  "  Pasta  Kaolini  glycerinata  "  and  "  Pasta  Kaolini  oleosa." 
Thus  you  can  see  that  by  the  resurrection  of  this  old  earth  and 
paste,  by  the  admission  of  Kaolin  and  Cataplasm  of  Kaolin  in  the 
U.  S.  P.  VIII,  the  words  of  Horace  again  become  true.  Let  us 
hope  that  the  old  clay  poultice  in  its  new,  somewhat  mysterious 
form,  will  have  a  long  and  blissful  life  in  our  materia  medica ! 
It  is  a  proven  fact,  which  does  not  correspond  with  the  old 
saying  that  "  humanity  changes  in  time,"  a  fact  which  is  deplorable 
for  modern  civilization  "and  educated  mankind,  that  earth  or  still 
better  ordinary  clay,  which  has  been  used  from  times  immemorial 
against  inflammations,  is  to-day  regarded  and  used  as  a  remedy  for 
almost  every  known  disease  by  a  newly  formed  school,  originated 
not  by  a  physician  but  by  Pastor  Kneipp ! 
Multa  Renascentur  quae  jam  Cecidere! 
(Many  things  shall  be  brought  to  life  which  have  fallen.) 
