Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
July,  1909.  | 
Pepsin. 
331 
A  comprehensive  clinical  report  of  the  case  will  appear  in  the 
American  Medical  Journal  in  the  near  future  by  Dr.  S.  Solis  Cohen, 
to  whom  the  writer  is  indebted  for  the  material  upon  which  the 
above  experiments  were  made. 
The  pentose  which  occurs  in  urine  is  usually  one  of  the  several 
varieties  of  arabinose  concerning  which  there  is  some  confusion, 
however,  in  the  literature  on  the  subject. 
THE  COMPOUND  POWDER  OF  PEPSIN  AND  THE 
COMPOUND  ELIXIR  OF  PEPSIN.* 
By  George  M.  Beringer. 
The  introduction  of  these  two  preparations  in  the  National 
Formulary  has  caused  considerable  comment  and  much  adverse 
criticism  that  has  been  largely  directed  against  the  Elixir  Diges- 
tivum  Compositum.  The  Council  on  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  of 
the  American  Medical  Association  have  investigated  combinations  of 
the  ferments,  pepsin,  pancreatin,  diastase,  etc.,  placed  on  the  market 
by  a  number  of  manufacturing  firms,  and  have  reported  adversely 
and  have  gone  to  the  limit  in  their  condemnation  and  have  requested 
the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  to  omit  Elixir  Digestivum 
Compositum  from  the  next  edition  of  the  N.F. 
These  critics  have  overlooked  the  fact  that  the  National  Formu- 
lary was  created  to  "  obtain  uniformity  in  dispensing  and  to  supply 
authoritative  standards  for  remedies  frequently  prescribed  by  physi- 
cians or  demanded  by  the  public."  The  responsibility  for  any 
"  therapeutic  absurdities  "  must  rest  with  the  prescriber  and  not 
with  the  dispenser  and,  as  long  as  the  physician  prescribes  such,  the 
pharmacist  is  only  discharging  his  duty  in  supplying. 
Despite  the  criticism  by  these  high  authorities  upon  the  liquid 
preparations  combining  these  ferments,  the  dispensing  pharmacist 
knows  that  there  has  been  little  if  any  diminution  in  the  use  of  these 
by  medical  practitioners. 
The  writer  notices  that  the  use  of  this  N.F.  elixir  and  of  the 
proprietary  elixirs  of  similar  composition  as  a  vehicle  for  the  admin- 
istration of  salicylates  of  sodium  and  strontium,  bismuth  salts, 
*  Read  before  the  Philadelphia  Branch  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  May  4,  1909. 
