Varieties.

QUEBRACHO.—Drs. Huchard and Eloy, of Blois, affirm that the six alkaloids of Quebracho reduce temperature in fevers even more effectually than quinine. Such a result is obtained in typhoid by the hypodermic injection of gr. 1 ½ to 3 of muriate of aspidospermine.—Pacific Med. and Surg. Jour., April, 1885.

VALUE OF CONVALLARIA MAJALIS.—The glitter of novelty is wearing away, and after two or three years of universal praise we find that Lily of the Valley is exciting some doubts as to its medical value. Leubascher affirms that grains 1/7 of convallarin produces paralysis and loss of reflex activity in frogs, and in animals a progressive fall of arterial pressure, with slowing of the pulse and final diastolic arrest of the heart. Pel. Leyden and Stiller agree with Leubascher in finding no therapeutic utility in its employment. Prof. E. T. Bruen, in our own country, says that it can be employed with reasonable confidence in functional cardiac disorders and in mitral obstruction, and that, in comparison with digitalis, it acts more as a cardiac regulator, but much less as a cardiac stimulant.—Therapeutic Gazette; Pacif. Med. and Surg. Jour., April, 1885.

The American Journal of Pharmacy, Vol. 57, 1885, was edited by John M. Maisch.