SOME GERMAN NOSTRUMS.
Of five nostrums sold for the cure of epilepsy in Germany, examined by Dr. Zernik, three were found to contain bromide salts as chief constituents: Lamma powder consisted of equal parts of bromide of sodium and bromide of ammonium; Antiépileptique (Uten) was a solution of potassium bromide (16 per cent.), coloured green, and containing 1 per cent. of an indifferent bitter tincture, while Berendorf’s powder for epilepsy contained potassium bromide 53·3 per cent., borax 40·3 per cent., and zinc oxide 4 per cent., the remainder being water. Borax is a remedy occasionally used to correct some undesired effect of bromides and has sometimes been prescribed for patients who could not tolerate the bromides. Zinc oxide has, or at one time had, a certain reputation as a nerve sedative. Of the two German remedies which did not contain bromide one consisted largely of formaldehyde which is used as an antiseptic and preservative for food, and the other consisted of pills containing nothing beyond inactive powdered leaves and roots.
CHAPTER XIV.
SOOTHING, TEETHING AND
COOLING POWDERS
FOR INFANTS.
The number of proprietary infants’ powders that can be said to be at all widely advertised is small, but some of them are sold in very large numbers. In addition, powders for the same purpose are very largely supplied by retailers, put up by themselves; they are usually of similar composition to one or other of those here described, but there is, of course, great scope for variations in the quantity and proportion, as well as in the nature of the drugs employed. It may, perhaps, be hoped that the efforts now being made by the employment of health visitors in many towns will, by the spread of instruction as to the common-sense management of infants, gradually lead to a great diminution in the custom so prevalent among the poorer classes of dosing infants whenever the curious foods, still so commonly given, cause indigestion.