Omaha daily bee., 1907-04-14

in this firm, by testing department con-
sisting OF a large corps of able chemists
and pharmacologists provided with an
equipment that would do credit to any uni
versity.
But chemistry, even at its present best,
Is incapable Of assaying the active princi-
pie of any drug whatever. There exists
superactive principles of so delicate a text
ure that they break down under analysis.
Therefore Messrs. Method and Efficiency
have developed great department Of
physiological standardization, in which the
determined and educated members thereof
ask that refractory drug, not, How much
is there Of your" but, How much can you
do?"
Value of ErROt.
Thus there is ergot A mans wife goes
bravely down TO the gates OF death TO pass
through, or if ii may hap, to come slowly
back, bearing radiantly with her the fam
ing torch of another life. Ergot is re-
quired. Now, ergOt is a fungus growing
upon rye, where II destroys and displaces
the ovary of the plant. II comes from
Russia, Austria, Spain, Sweden and whore
not; its classical analysis does not seem to
yield reliable information for its own ac-
tive constituents are not definitely under
the drug may be good, or little, or zero,
just as it may chance while after the
lapse Of a year IT becomes unfit for use.
Yet 1t is this substance, so utterly var
liable, that the physician trusts to decide
the question Of the woman and the child.
That he may do so depends upon this most
curious and interesting fact, that ergot
which is Independently active will blacken
the comb Of a living fowl, and that the
degree Of bIackening may be so carefully
adjusted by strengthening or weakening
the drug that a standard preparation may
be prepared. Consequently in this labora-
tory there are kept certain redoubtabIe
ROSTERS that continually function as stand
ardizers OF ergot
Coal Tar Extracts.
The discovery that in coal tar there ex-
listed many substances that could be used
as a basis in building up the numberless
aniline dyes led to the assumption that such
substance might have valuable physloIog-
zeal properties, and the assumption was
wholly justified the investigative research
along these lines began with the attempt
10 attain the philosophers stone OF drug
gery-the synthesis Of quinine Soon II be-
came recognized that not only the COM
pounds of the benzne ring might have
physiological properties, but that any one
Of the nifty thousand organic compounds
might have, and probably wnuld have,
properties that would AFFECT the human or
ganism. As a result there is today an in
credible number Of new synthetic rem
edies introduced, through the physicians,
70 and into the people. Literally, every
passing day sees the introduction Of some
Of them, and lucky Is he, rich OF poor, In
the hands Of eminent specialists or general
practitioner, who knows when he Is not
being dosed with an experiment. For, first,
physiological properties do not mean neces-
sarily therapeutic properties, and therapeu-
tic properties over one organ do not mean
therapeutic properties over all. Further
more, the enormous number Of such sub
stances forbids the supp0sitiOn that there
can be IN every case any adequate deter
mlnation OF value, and. finally. the manu-