The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-03
TESTING DRUGS ON ANIMALS.
Dogs Used to Ascertain the Strength
of Hasheesh.

Dogs Used to Ascertain the strength
of Hasheesh.
From the New Orleans Times-D Democrat.
you've heard the theatrical expression,
trying it on a dog, said a local repre-
sentative of a great manufacturing drug
house. 1T means an experimental per
Torrance of a new play in some small
city. If the dog, otherwise the small city,
shows no great symptoms of distress they
venture the thing in New York. Well, in
our line of business we frequently try
it on a dog also on a frog, rat, a
rooster, a guinea pig and other animals
too numerous to mention. Our trials are
literal. not figurative. We make them to
ascertain the strength of certain drugs,
which, for some reason or other, defy
chemical analysis. In such cases we re-
sort to what is called a physiological test.
Suppose, for instance, we want to ma
out the strength of a sample of digltahs,
which, if in good condition, has a slim
ulating effect on the heart. The experts
on the staff of the laboratory at our works
force a drop of the stuff into the stomach
of a small frog, which is then placed in
a delicate machine called a kymograph
that records it's heartbeats on a strip OF
paper. The digitalis may be perfectly dead
and inert and it may be strong and active
no chemist could tell the difference-but
the kymograph gets at the truth with
infallible certainty, and the sample is
graded accordingly. The frogs used are
little fellows not over two inches long,
and they are rather hard to get. Some
time ago we sent the house consign-
ment from New Orleans, but they proved
to be TOO large. Why do we use such
small ones? Because it takes less of the
drug to affect them. It's merely matter
of economy.
Some of the other tests are still more
curious" continued the drug man, and
none queerer than that of ergot. To as
certain It's active properties a small guam
tity is injected into full grown rooster.
If the drug is up to standard strength the
comb of the fowl soon begins to turn blue
and eventually becomes almost black. The
power of the particular sample on trial Is
indicated by the deepness of the discolo-
ration. This test is the only reliable one
known and is exceedingly valuable. be-
cause ergot has a strange trick of oc-
casionally losing all it's medicinal prop
critics without showing the slightest
change in general appearance. 'Hasheesh,
which has figured so extensively in ro-
mances of the Orient, is known scientific
ally as Canabls Indica. 1t is tested on
dogs. When the drug is all right the dog
soon begins to get 'dopy,' staggers in its
dreams dreams. The necessity of testing
hasheesh grows out of a very singular
fact AS most people know, it is made
from the blossom of Indian hemp, but il
is only the unfertilized female flower that
has any narcotic properties The male
flowers and the seed-bearing female fiow-
ers are absolutely valueless, but all three
look alike to the naked eye. So does the
| tincture prepared from them, and, like
the other drugs mentioned, it doesn't yield
to analysis. These tests will give a fair
idea of the modern method of getting at
facts about medicines. They are only a
| few out Of many. Altogether, 1 suppose
that upward of a dozen different animals
are used each selected because of it's SEN
sitiveness to some special preparation.
Occasionally the sentimentalists raise a
wall over the poor guinea pigs and white
rats and the innocent frogs that are sac
rificed to science. but if it wasn't for the
help of these crea lures we would have to
fall back on the old-fashioned method of
distinguishing toadstools from mushrooms
Cook them and eat Them was the for
mula, and if they don't kill you they
are mushrooms "