Ointment of Mercuric Nitrate.—C. H. La Wall (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1894, 525). The following fats have been suggested as a substitute for the lard oil: Neatsfoot oil, lard, butter, peanut oil, almond oil, caster oil, palm oil, bear’s oil, ox marrow, beef suet, stearic acid, petrolatum, and almost all of the other fats from the animal and the vegetable kingdoms, and even one from the mineral kingdom, appear to have been experimented with in the vain hope of finding some fat or oil which would make a good and durable ointment.
Several writers have taken another course and have tried to preserve the products obtained from former processes. One advises keeping the ointment in a jar and covering it with a layer of glycerin to prevent oxidation; others have tried the addition of camphor; still others have given their attention to the mercurial portion of the ointment, and suggest making the nitrate from the oxide of mercury instead of making it from the metal. Some have even been skeptical as to the reliability of any process, but those who have approximated the truth more nearly are they who advise careful manipulation, especially as regards temperature.
The author employs the official ingredients and quantities and heats the lard oil to 100° C., removes heat, and adds the nitric acid without stirring and reapplies heat when effervescence ceases until all gas is expelled. It is best to use a vessel of six times the capacity of the quantity to be made to allow for the copious effervescence which takes place. When the foregoing mixture has cooled to 40° C., the solution of mercuric nitrate is added and the temperature is raised gradually to 60° C., and maintained until no further evolution of gas is noticed. If it is then agitated until cold, as usual, the resulting product will comply with the requirements of the Pharmacopœia.
Ointment made by the U. S. P. method, which has become spongy, may be remedied by elevating the temperature to 60° C. and cooling with agitation.
Typical Bacilli.—E. Klein [Quart. Jour. Micros. Sci., 1894, 1-9 (1 pl)] concludes from observations on the bacilli of anthrax diphtheria, and tubercle, that these species are not such typical bacilli as they are usually represented to be. For though under many conditions their morphological characters are those of typical bacilli, yet under others they revert to or assume forms indicating their relationship to Saccharomyces or a still higher mycelia fungus. In the case of anthrax, the typical bacilli may be represented by oval and spherical bodies, some of which may contain vacuoles, and under conditions (early stages of growth on plates composed of beef bouillon, gelatin 10 per cent., pepton 1 per cent., salt 1 per cent.), the colonies are composed of large spindle-shaped, spherical or oval elements in which vacuolation is frequent. Similar appearances are to be observed in colonies of the thrush fungus. From this it is inferred that while B. anthracis is a typical bacillus as a pathogenic microbe, yet in its early stages of growth on gelatin it may assume characters having much resemblance to Saccharomyces mycoderma or Oidium and thus return temporarily to an atavistic stage in its evolutionary history. With regard to B. diphtheriæ the author points out that the club-shaped expansions of one or both ends are not to be regarded as due to involution, for both under natural and artificial conditions where there is active growth these expansions will be found, and have moreover a striking resemblance to the ends of growing hyphæ. Their existence, therefore, is only to be explained by their representing a relationship to a mycelial fungus. In the case of the tubercle bacilli, preparations not unfrequently show threads or filaments composed of unequal elements, some of them being conspicuous for knob-shaped expansions, similar to those of diphtheria. Such appearances occur not only in sputum but in artificial cultivations e.g. glycerin agar after some weeks incubation at 37°. All these preparations behave in the same way as B. tuberculosis when treated with appropriate staining reagents; and that they are not involution forms is evident, as the unbranched nature of the filaments and the existence of lateral bulgings prove that they are in an active condition of growth.
Lysidin.—Ladenburg describes a compound obtained in the state of hydrochloride by heating ethylene diamene hypochloride with sodium acetate. The composition of the freebase is C₄H₈N₂ and is termed lysidin. The aquems solutions dissolve uric acid and the application of lysidin in the treatment of diseases arising from the secretion of uric acid is being investigated. Grawitz describes it as a crystalline body of a light red color, readily soluble in water and possesses a peculiar taste. It is administered in doses from 15 to 80 grains daily, dissolved in carbonic acid-water.—Deutsche med. Wochenschr., 1894, 786.
Gaseous Formaldehyde.—R. Cambier and A. Brochet prepare this aldehyde for disinfection in two ways: 1. By the depolymerization of trioxymethylene by heat, and, 2. Direct production by the incomplete combustion of methylic alcohol. Formaldehyde possesses antiseptic properties only when it is in the condition of a gas. On cooling, ordinarily, it is spontaneously polymerized to an inert solid. If it is allowed to cool, in the presence of much air this process does not take place and hence the formaldehyde retains its bactericidal properties. Experiments made at the bacteriological laboratory of Montsouris have enabled the authors to sterilize the ordinary dust of rooms as well as cultivations of various pathogenic micro-organisms.—Compt. Rend., 1894, No. 15.