The Seventh Annual Report (1885) of the Ohio State Pharmaceutical Association contains, besides the constitution and by-laws and history of the organization, a number of interesting articles. One of them, by S. J. Nicolay, M. D., of Hamilton, Ohio, is in reply to Query No. 1—“Do the Various Fluid Extracts of Hydrastis Canadensis, Made Without Alcohol, Contain all of the Active Principles of the Drug?” The writer says that, properly, this extract “should not contain alcohol, since the alcoholic extractive essentially contains resin, which, being an irritant to inflamed mucous surfaces, is a detriment in a large majority of cases to which it is otherwise applicable.” As to whether the various fluid extracts of this drug, made without alcohol, contain all the active principles of the crude article, he concludes, after an examination of six specimens from different manufacturers, that “each specimen was found to contain portions of the two known alkaloids—berberine and hydrastine—in their varying proportions.” “As to whether these samples contained the alkaloids in as large quantities as the respective samples of the crude drug from which they were made, was not determined, but probably they did.” If this is true, the fluid extract, without alcohol, will be as effective as that made with alcohol, beside being quite miscible with water for topical application, injections, etc., without becoming turbid and depositing resin.
Query 24—“What is the Most Effective and Pleasant Disinfectant?”—is answered by L. Sollman of Canton in an essay in which he treats: 1. “As to what is that something which disinfectants are intended to counteract.” 2. “What articles are disinfectants, and what is the way in which they effect disinfection.” 3. “Which of them is practically useful, and which is the most practical way of using them under various conditions.”
A copy of the report can be had by forwarding fifty cents to the secretary, Lewis C. Hopp, Cleveland, O.
NOTES AND COMMENTS.
The Graubuch of the General Hospital of Vienna.—From this very interesting report for 1884 we learn the following: At the end of ‘83 there remained in the hospital 1,672 patients; of these 1,037 were males and 635 females. In ‘84, 23,937 patients were admitted, 14,801 males and 9,136 females. Discharged as cured, 12,532; improved, 4,485; uncured, 2,857. At the end of December, 1884, the number of patients remaining in the hospital was 1,742.
The maximum of sickness among males was reached in January (1,179); among females in May (740). The minimum among males in the month of August (842); among females in September (588).
It is somewhat interesting to note among the victims of pulmonary tuberculosis, the proportion furnished by various occupations. Two hundred and four day laborers, 113 shoemakers, 90 blacksmiths, 76 cabinetmakers, 71 turners, 30 coachmen, 19 butlers, 19 waiters, 8 landlords, 6 musicians, 6 servants, 4 conductors, 2 janitors, 1 stenographer, 1 chorister, 1 turnkey, etc. The proportion of deaths from tuberculosis expressed in percentage of the whole number of deaths was as follows: June, 5.6; April, 4.7; March, 4.4; August, 4.3; May, 4.2; February, 4.1; January, 3.9; October, 3.6; July, 3.2; November, 2.9; September and December, 2.8.
The most rheumatism occurred in May (84), most typhus in September (19), most bronchitis in March (210), the most pneumonitis in April (78), the most catarrh of the digestive organs in July (81).