that produced by yeast and many of those which occur in putrefaction; and chemical, or those which occur independent of vitality, as the production of volatile oils in mustard and bitter almonds, the effect of diastase, etc. Now, while carbolic acid and other antiferments are azymotic, or completely arrest or prevent fermentations of the first kind, they are powerless with the chemical processes. Salicylic acid is said to be more effective with the vital ferments, and equally effective with the chemical. Fourthly, in quantities said to be thoroughly effective, it is entirely odorless and tasteless and harmless, whilst it has no poisonous effect in any reasonable quantity.

It prevents or arrests the souring of worts, washes and beers of the brewers, and prevents or arrests the putrefactive agencies which are so troublesome and destructive to the glue manufacturers; and these and similar trades have thus far seemed to be its principal consumers. Separate portions of fresh milk set aside to become sour, one to which 0.04 per cent. of salicylic acid was added soured thirty-six hours later than the other. Urine thus protected was on the third day still clear and free from ammoniacal odor.

Varying proportions of the acid added to accurately measured separate portions of sweet milk, and these carefully observed afterward until they sour-or, by the use of meat juice instead of milk, observed closely for signs of putrefaction-would offer good indications of the quantities required to arrest these varieties of fermentation.

Professor Thiersch, of Leipsic1, used it upon contused and incised wounds, and in operations, with excellent general results, destroying the fetid odor of cancerous surfaces and pyæmic ulcerations. To such uses this writer would add the suggestion that for washing out the cavities of the abdomen and chest after those operations which tend so strongly to septicemia, solutions of salicylic acid would seem to offer very great advantages, should it prove to be as bland and unirritating as it is stated to be, and yet so effective.

Most of these statements are summed up from the periodical literature of continental Europe during the past six months, little having appeared upon the subject in Great Britain, or in this country, and nothing having been done with it, so far as known, in either country.

In occasional paragraphs and allusions benzoic acid has been coupled with salicylic acid, as being only second to it in effectiveness as an antiferment, and with similar advantages.

These statements are collated and condensed here as being well worth attention in themselves and in their relations to the phenomena of septic poisoning as already known. But they have a new significance, or at least suggest to this writer a new train of thought, when viewed in connection with some researches now in progress and but just appearing in the periodical literature.

Experiments were made upon animals by the injection of measured quantities of septic blood. The blood of a healthy animal was allowed. to become putrid. Increasing doses of this were injected into healthy

I. Pharm. Centralhalle, Nos. 44 and 45, 1874.

2. Bergman, Panum, Davaine, Vulpian and Bouley-the latter researches in Bulletins de l'Acad. de Med. 1872, 1873, and Davaine, translated by Mary C. Putnam. M. D., in Archives of Scientific and Practical Medicine, by C. E. Brown-Sequard and E. C. Seguin, No. 5, p. 469.

This

animals until the amount necessary to cause death was ascertained. quantity proved to be large, the animals recovering from all the small doses. Blood from the animal whose death was caused by injections of putrid blood was injected in increasing doses into healthy animals until the fatal dose was reached, and this dose was found to be smaller than that which killed the first animal. The blood of the second dead animal was used on healthy subjects in the same way as that of the first, and proved fatal in still smaller quantity. The experiments were continued upon the same plan until finally a point was reached when a very minute portion-the fraction of a drop, perhaps―from the last animal proved fatal to the next, with more violent toxic symptoms and a shorter course. The important indications of this series of experiments is, of course, the rapid accumulation of potency in septic poisoning. And the question put by this indication is not only as to how this potency accumulates, but also how to prevent and arrest it. Metro-peritonitis and common pyæmia would doubtless, unobstructed, accumulate potency in the same way without visible inoculation, and often do continue and accumulate even against the vigorous application of the best means of prevention yet known. No hypothesis can be constructed that will embrace the phenomena of septic poisoning, as they are now rapidly being investigated without including zymotic diseases and the cachexia, and none will account for the phenomena already observed without bringing it within the sphere of what is called, in some of its degrees or phases, fermentation. Hence, if the medical art is to keep pace with the progress of the physical sciences, physicians can not afford to pass by such articles as salicylic and benzoic acids when offered by chemistry, without investigating their effects upon disease, even though not one out of ten should repay the labor of investigation; for it is certainly in this direction of research that medicine must look with greatest hope of success to control those abnormal vital processes which so far may be modified but not stopped. For example: Suppose a primary syphilitic or cancerous sore, or a diphtheritic patch, or even a cachectic pulmonary infarction, while these are merely the localized phenomena of an external inoculation, or of an internal taint,-they must all be considered to partake of the nature of a fermentation, and by some such process invade the whole organism. Then suppose an antiferment which, when applied to any surface not covered by an impervious cuticle, very soon appears, unchanged, first in the blood and then in the secretions and excretions—the manifest logical antagonism of such substance to the diseased conditions becomes too important to be neglected, and the counsels of wisdom demand that its claims to such antagonism be disproved before it be dismissed. The question as to what may become of the cancer-cell, or of the less tangible precedent cause of it, or of the bacteria, or the precedent conditions which increase their fertility, under the well directed influence of this class of agents, is, perhaps, the most important one in all medical science. And just in proportion as accurate research develops agents of greater and greater power, will be the prospect of better success in treatment.

The phenols, especially the so-called carbolic and cresylic acids (Phenol and Cresol), were and must always remain to be most important additions to this class of agents, surpassing in power all that had been

previously tried. And if now salicylic acid shall prove more potent than the phenols, the farther gain will be very great, and the researches upon it will again lead up toward future discoveries of still greater power.—Read before the Medical Society of the State of New York.

CARNAUBA ROOT.

BY CHARLES SYMES, PH. D.

Two bales of this root have been imported into Liverpool, with the following remarks:

"The root is recognized by the profession as an excellent purifying agent, and has been successfully applied in the cure of various diseases arising from impurity of the blood. We are indeed astonished that it is not more widely known, as its therapeutic qualities, which are worthy of full credence, rival those of sarsaparilla. The carnauba root, likewise, has a diuretic power and possesses unusual efficacy in the cure of acute or chronic blennorrhoeas. It is, furthermore, very cooling, and displays a vigorous action in purifying the blood."

The root is that of Corypha cerifera, a wax-bearing palm, growing on the shores of the Rio Francesco, in the Brazils; it is several feet in length, and has an average thickness of three-eighths of an inch, of a mixed grayish and reddish-brown color, giving off here and there small rootlets.

The cortical portion is comparatively thick, somewhat friable, and loosely surrounds the meditullium which encloses the pith; thus, a transverse section somewhat resembles, in appearance, an exogenous stem. Its infusion is similar in color to that of wild cherry bark, possesses an agreeable, slightly bitter taste, and an odor not unlike that of sarsaparilla ; its color is slightly deepened, but no precipitate occurs on the addition of liq. potassæ, neither on the addition of dilute acids. Tinct. ferri perchlor. does not strike a black, but brownish color, gradually followed by turbidity and the formation of a brown deposit. The decoction is not affected by iodine, indicating the absence of starch; a drop of it concentrated on a porcelain slab and treated with strong sulphuric acid, produces an olive green, slowly changing to a brown color. It yields. twenty-five per cent. of a reddish-brown extract possessing a decidedly bitter taste.

It awaits further medical testimony in this country; should it prove equal to the particulars given, it will be a valuable medicine, and possesses the advantage of an almost unlimited supply, at (I am informed) about one-half the cost of sarsaparilla.-London Pharm. Journal.

Pipe clay rubbed on the hands will remove the unpleasant odor of chloride of lime.

The germination of seeds can be watched at every stage of its progress by laying the seeds between moist towels and placing the latter between plates. The towels can be lifted without damage to the tender sprouts.

An Essay on the Active Constituents of Bitter Orange Peel. 109

AN ESSAY ON THE ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS OF BITTER ORANGE-PEEL, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE BITTER PRINCIPLE.

BY RICHARD H. STABLER, M. D., ALEXANDRIA, VA.

The prevalence of volatile oil dispersed over all parts of the plants of the natural order Aurantiaceæ, or citron worts, of Lindley, is a distinguishing characteristic. They resemble the rue worts, in the abundance of volatile oil pervading the genera, but differ from them in their consolidated, juicy fruit. The leaves abound in a volatile, fragrant, bitter, exciting oil, contained in separate oily receptacles; the pulp of the fruit is always more or less acid.

Two varieties of orange-peel are used in medicine, the sweet orange, the product of Citrus aurantium, and the bitter or Seville of C. vulgaris, of De Candolle.

The constituents of orange-peel are volatile oil, a crystallizable principle (Hesperidin of Lebreton), and in bitter orange-peel, an uncrystallizable principle, or extractive, of a very bitter taste (Aurantiin of Pereira), and traces of gallic acid.

Volatile Oil.-The oil of orange-peel is obtained by expressing the lacerated rind of sweet or bitter orange, or by distilling the rind or expressed oil with water.

The oil obtained by expression is less clear, of sp. gr. o.856, and more agreeable than that obtained by other means. When distilled, it is clear, very mobile, white at first, becoming pale-yellow or greenish-yellow; it boils at 165° C.

The oil obtained by expression is always colored, much more so than that obtained by distillation. The expressed oil is less pure, because it holds in suspension or solution mucilage and other fixed substances.

This oil is isomeric with oil of turpentine, C1H16, as are similar oils from other aurantiaceous plants, C. bergamia, C. limetta, C. limonum, etc. Oil of Neroli, obtained from orange flowers by distillation with water, is probably of the same nature when pure (F.).

When kept in closed vessels it deposits crystalline, easily fusible, volatile clots, soluble in water, and alcohol; the oil ultimately turns viscid and brown (Gaubius).

With iodine it gives off yellowish-red vapors with great violence, assuming a resinous consistence.

By nitric acid it is converted into a brittle resin.

Oil of vitriol colors it dark reddish-brown. The oil of orange-peel, besides its odor, is distinguished from oil of turpentine by rotating the ray of polarized light to the right and not to the left. This is true also

of the oils of limes, cedrat, bergamot, etc.

When exposed to hydrochloric acid it combines with it, forming two compounds; one the dihydrochloride, C10H16, 2HCl, existing in a solid and a liquid modification; and a monohydrochloride, CHHCl, apparently susceptible of similar modifications.

With water it forms a crystalline hydrate. It is soluble in all proportions in anhydrous alcohol, and with turbidity in seven or ten parts of alcohol, sp. gr. 0.85.

Hesperidin. The crystallizable principle, which resides more especially in the white spongy portion of the rind of the fruits of the genus Citrus, was discovered by Lebreton in 1828, the juice which exudes when cutting through the fruit being rendered milky by hesperidin. It occurs. abundantly in the germs of orange-blossoms, but not in the petals or filaments.

Hesperidin was obtained by Lebreton from unripe oranges, by a complicated unproductive process. In a paper read before the Physiological Society by Dr. Cogswell, in 1854, and quoted in the American Journal of Pharmacy of that year, p. 552, he has found it was deposited in crystals by evaporating a decoction of the white portion of the rind, while in the same portion of the shaddock, C. decumana, it was separated by simple maceration in cold water, and could be collected in a filter.

The alcoholic tincture yields on evaporation a very bitter granular extract, which on standing for a week with twenty times its weight of water, or distilled vinegar, gradually deposits crystalline hesperidin. Purification is effected by recrystallization from hot alcohol.

When unripe oranges are preserved in vinegar or alcohol of 22° B., hesperidin crystallizes at the bottom of the vessel.

Hesperidin occurs in delicate, silky tufts of needles, grouped in nodules, which are odorless and tasteless when pure, though they usually possess slight bitterness, probably owing to the adherence of another substance.

Hesperidin melts above 109° C., and solidifies on cooling to a brownishyellow transparent mass, and does not again crystallize from alcohol. When submitted to dry distillation it does not yield ammonia, but leaves a porous charcoal. In cold nitric acid it assumes a yellowish-red color, and dissolves when heated, with formation of oxalic acid and a little yellow artificial bitter.

Strong sulphuric acid turns hesperidin first orange-yellow, afterwards bright-red.

In strong hydrochloric acid hesperidin acquires a greenish-yellow color, which is destroyed by water. Hydrochloric or sulphuric acid, when added in excess to the alkaline solution of hesperidin, and then boiled, a deep orange-red resin is deposited, which is soluble in water; insoluble in alcohol; soluble in oil of vitriol with rose-color; in ammonia with greenish-yellow, and in caustic alkali with deep-red color.

Hesperidin is nearly insoluble in cold, soluble in sixty parts boiling. water, which deposits three-fifths of the amount dissolved on cooling. It is insoluble in dilute sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, but easily soluble in aqueous fixed alkalies; also in aqueous ammonia; remaining free from ammonia on evaporating the solution; it is precipitated from the alkaline solution by acids; it forms with lime a soluble compound, precipitable by alcohol. The aqueous solution of hesperidin does not precipitate neutral or basic acetate of lead; it dissolves slightly in cold, and feeely in hot glacial acetic acid; the solution is not rendered turbid by water, but is precipitated by alcohol; it leaves hesperidin free from acetic acid on evaporation; it dissolves very sparingly in cold, very easily in hot alcohol;