Drugs and Digestion. 
BY 
ROBERT G. ECCLES, M. D. 
REPRINTED PROM 
Ebe "Nell) ¥orft i'Hetiical Journal 
for 'Nov. 27 and Dec. 11, 1886. Reprinted from the New York Medical Journal 
for November 27 and December 11, 1886. 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION.* 
By ROBERT G. ECCLES, M. D. 
We smile at the incongruous prescriptions of last cen- 
tury, and wonder how either physicians or patients derived 
any satisfaction or benefit from them. We sneer at the 
young graduate who, in the confusion that arises from his 
new environment, writes orders for gross chemical or physio- 
logical incompatibles, and go from his office pondering upon 
the degeneracy of medical education. We never stop to 
question the wisdom of ourselves and others pouring into 
the stomachs of the sick in the most promiscuous manner, 
without regard to time or circumstances, drugs that inhibit 
or check the production of life- and health-giving peptone. 
In all chronic diseases the paramount consideration of every 
scientific medical man regards the patient’s nutrition. 
Where we can not destroy pathogenic micro-organisms out- 
right, the patient’s only, hope in the struggle for life lies in 
the strength of his cells, and their consequent power to 
triumph over their foes. High above every other consid- 
eration at such times is digestion. To interfere with or 
check it in the least, in many cases, is, then, criminal. 
When our remedies are incompatible with the gastric juice, 
* Head before the Brooklyn Pathological Society, November 11, 1886. 2 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
the time of taking is likely to be of far more importance 
than the medicine itself. To weaken our patients by the 
production of artificial malnutrition gives their merciless dis- 
eases the advantage over them, where a little more knowl- 
edge would have enabled us to aid the vital forces instead 
of handicapping them. Important, therefore, as is the 
knowledge of the effects of drugs upon digestion, it has 
until the present year (1886) been almost totally neglected. 
Even in the administration of artificial ferments as aids to 
digestion the utmost recklessness prevails. Articles utterly 
valueless, with some of doubtful value, are, on the strength 
of advertisements and samples, used to the detriment of 
the sick. Prescriptions have been shown your essayist in 
various pharmacies in this city and New York for the com- 
pounding of which large prices were paid. The ingredients 
were the very best in the country, but the doctor’s igno- 
rance had rendered them totally worthless. First-class pep- 
sin, one grain of which would digest one thousand grains 
of albumin in an hour, was in one case compounded with 
ingredients that rendered it utterly inert, and, on actual trial 
of a repetition of the same, it was found unable to digest a 
single grain in the same time. This physician probably 
condemned the pepsin for the bad results, as so many 
others, under similar circumstances, have done before and 
since. 
Had such prescriptions been written by quacks or un- 
known practitioners, it would not have been a matter for 
grave comment. Being the work of men who stand high 
in the profession, it necessarily wore a more serious aspect. 
Your essayist does not for a moment presume to think 
that laboratory experiments with flasks, bottles, or test-tubes 
can give exact physiological results. There are cases in which 
we know that the outcome of the internal use of certain 
drugs is apparently the very opposite of what might be DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
3 
expected, reasoning exclusively from such data. Let the 
stomach be the seat of acetic or any other pathological fer- 
mentation, and the administration of powerful pepsin in- 
hibitors, in not too large doses, will positively aid and has- 
ten digestion. They exhaust their power in destroying a 
vicious ferment, and thus enable the otherwise inactive 
gastric juice to assume its function. Any alkali, alkaline 
carbonate, corrosive sublimate, carbolic acid, creasote, sali- 
cylic acid, or other powerful antagonist of pepsin, will here 
swing in as an apparent support of Hahnemann’s dogma of 
similars curing similars. As we perceive the causes under- 
lying such seeming contradictions, if we do not rest content 
with the groundless assumption that the stomach acts in 
some mysterious non-physical, non-chemical manner, we shall 
become masters of the situation. Its laws and those of the 
laboratory are the same, as far as they go together. Our 
reasoning is at fault when we fail to note the vastly greater 
complexity involving the one than the other. Whatever 
inhibits peptonization in the flask will do the same in the 
stomach, however much other things may mask it, or seem 
even to give reverse results. The lost power has only led 
to some unforeseen balancing gain. If we continue to wage 
war on the stomach’s store of pepsin because we blundered 
into what proved a benefit at one or even two trials, we shall 
find that we are deceiving ourselves and damaging our pa- 
tients. To give pepsin inhibitors when all has been gained 
that can be by compensation, or when no such compensa- 
tion is possible, can lead only to ill. And yet this is being 
done daily and hourly in every civilized community upon 
the globe. 
The study of the retarding effects of drugs upon diges- 
tion was first earnestly entered into by Dr. Klikovich, a 
Russian. The only brief notice of his work English-speak- 
ing people have had was given in the London “ Lancet” on 4 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
June 19, 1886. The work embodied in this paper was be- 
gun in April of the present year. On September 4th the 
“Lancet” again informed its readers that O. Peterson, 
of St. Petersburg, had published the results of a similar- 
investigation. These brief notices constitute all that is 
known upon the matter outside the Czar’s dominions. The 
few drugs mentioned show in their results the bad effects 
of using dried albumin instead of fresh, and the effects of 
too large quantities of pepsin. Differences which to them 
seem to have been inappreciable, and that at the commence- 
ment of this work were thought impossible of procurement, 
have by experience been gained. Plan after plan was tried 
until the best was discovered. Many of the results were 
tested by from one to six repeated trials. All would have 
been so tested if another year could have been devoted to 
the work. Errors will creep in in spite of the utmost vigi- 
lance. For the first three months all the experiments were 
performed at a temperature of 38° to 40° C. (98° to 100° 
F.); but, for the purpose of saving time and expense and 
getting closer results, 49° C. was used. More than half of 
the old work was confirmed at the new temperature, so that 
they mutually proved each other. This was a compromise 
figure between the temperature of the stomach, 40° C., and 
that found in practice to be the quickest for artificial diges- 
tion, 55° C. When five grains of albumin were digested 
with one tenth of one per cent, of hydrochloric acid in 
water for one hour, using the same amount of pepsin each 
time, the following were the amounts undissolved at the 
temperatures given : 
Degree Centigrade.... 40° 44° 49° 55° 60° 66° 
Albumin undissolved.. 0-30 0-26 0-20 0-14 0'18 0'36 
Other per cents, of acid were tried with corresponding 
results. A glance at the figures shows 55° C. to have the 
least undissolved albumin left. It would appear from this DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
5 
that the failure of appetite in a patient is not due to the 
checking of digestion by fever. The products of such di- 
gestion, however, no doubt seriously affect the same. There 
are many kinds of peptone produced in peptic digestion. 
One of these, called by Meissner parapeptone (Reichert’s 
“ Foster’s Physiology,” page 965), is insoluble in neutral 
solutions. This is the one most abundantly produced at 
the higher temperature. Once formed, its further change 
into true peptone is impossible without the aid of trypsin. 
Could it be precipitated in the stomach, it would do no 
harm, since it would be carried through the pyloric orifice 
into the duodenum, there to complete its metabolism. Not 
being so precipitated, it finds in the stomach-walls a line of 
neutrality between the alkaline blood and the acid gastric 
juice, where it can be thrown down to check all osmosis. 
Like the dog in the manger, it will not form blood itself 
nor let that do so which could ; consequently the patient 
must suffer. In cases where the fever does not produce 
such results, the doctor is kind enough to order it done on 
the advice of some advertising quack who patronizes his 
favorite medical journal. Artificially produced peptones of 
beef, eggs, or milk, prepared at all sorts of temperatures, are 
poured down the sick man’s throat. It is in vain for him 
to proclaim that his stomach rebels and that he abhors the 
stuff—down it must go. It is in vain for him to say that 
his appetite is worse after it. That is reasoned away as due 
to the disease or to his having derived so much benefit from 
a former dose. There are peptones and peptones, and the 
quicker medical men know it the better. In all our diges- 
tion of albumin there would be a considerable amount of 
parapeptone produced but for the chloride of sodium taken 
with our food. During these experiments it was found that 
peptones produced in the presence of table salt could not 
be precipitated by neutralization. This was an important 6 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
discovery, and showed that the use of this article in our 
food has hitherto been partly misapprehended. To make 
alkali and acid for peptic and tryptic digestion it would 
have been as available, and it would seem even much 
more available, to take it with the water we drink. But 
we do not relish drinking salt water as we do eating salt 
meat or salt bread and butter. Wherever we relish salt, 
there without it parapeptone would be produced to block 
digestion. Wherever we do not relish it, there it could not 
avail in that direction. But salt delays digestion, so that 
an excess must be guarded against as injurious. When the 
amount of pepsin is made so small that it will require three 
hours and a half to digest the albumin used, the presence 
of one fifth of one per cent, of table salt in the total diges- 
tive fluid will delay it to double the time. Four fifths of 
one per cent, under the same conditions delay to seven- 
teen hours. 
Early in this investigation it was deemed advisable to 
determine whether acids other than lactic and hydrochloric 
could be used with pepsin to produce peptone. The gen- 
erally accepted theory being that digestion is a hydrolytic 
change of the proteids, we should expect to find many other 
acids capable of producing this result. The following were 
PER CENT. OF 
ACID. 
1 
0-8 
0-6 
0-5 
0-3 
02 
o-i 
Grnis. 
Grins. 
Grins. 
Grins. 
GrmH. 
Grins. 
Grms. 
Hydrochloric... 
0-80 
0-55 
0-17 
o-io 
o-oo 
o-oo 
0-30 
Phosphoric .... 
o-oo 
0-05 
0-12 
0-26 
0-71 
0-93 
2-36 
Nitro-muriatic.. 
2-10 
1-34 
0-31 
0-20 
o-oo 
0-21 
391 
0-35 
1-31 
1-89 
2-16 
3-19 
3-90 
4-15 
0'39 
1-29 
1-82 
1-96 
3-08 
3-75 
3-93 
Hydrobromic... 
2-96 
2-84 
2-24 
1-48 
0-41 
0-16 
0-39 
Nitric 
2-27 
1-93 
1-57 
1-41 
0-60 
0-71 
1-89 
Citric 
1-47 
2-22 
2-50 
2-71 
3-73 
392 
4-06 
2-31 
2-87 
2-98 
3-16 
3-27 
3-34 
3-74 
Hyperchloric ... 
2-65 
3-17 
4-79 
5-00 
5-00 
4-60 
3'52 
3-19 
2-93 
3-04 
311 
Hydrocyanic... 
5-00 
500 
4-87 
4-01 DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
7 
tried in the varying percentages marked in the first line of 
the table. The figures opposite the names of the acids rep- 
resent the amount of albumin remaining undissolved at the 
end of the trial. The two that were not tried at every 
strength with the others were considered too doubtful to 
spend the time upon. 
Hydrochloric acid was afterward tried with a reduced 
quantity of pepsin, and found to be most efficient at 0*2 per 
cent. It takes five times as much phosphoric acid to pro- 
duce the same result as this small quantity of muriatic, while 
an increased or decreased quantity of muriatic only hinders. 
A small amount of phosphoric acid added to 0*2 muriatic 
improves digestion. This is the secret of acid phosphate 
becoming so popular, and of the efficiency of dilute phos- 
phoric acid in dyspepsia. This, however, is not true of 
other acids, nor of this one above one per cent, or below 
one half of one per cent. The next table gives a list of the 
acids tried. Here digestion was completed in all, and time 
made the gauge instead of the amount of undissolved albu- 
min. Fifteen centigrammes of absolute acid or its equiva- 
lent of dilute acid were added to the fifty grammes of solu- 
tion. The first nine failed to come out in ten hours. 
1. Chromic acid = over 10 hrs. 
2. Picric acid = “ “ “ 
3. Molvbdenic acid = “ “ “ 
4. Sulphuric acid = “ “ “ 
5. Thymic acid = “ “ “ 
6. Hydrobromie a. = “ “ “ 
7. Salicylic acid = “ “ “ 
8. Pyrogallic acid = “ “ “ 
9. Nitric acid = “ “ “ 
10. Hyperchloric acid = 3 h. 40 m. 
11. Catliartinic acid = 3 h. 40 m. 
12. Chrysophanicacid= 3 h. 40 m. 
Acids. 
13. Tannic acid = 3 hrs. 
14. Benzoic acid = 2 h. 40 m. 
15. Oxalic acid = 2 h. 40 m. 
16. Citric acid = 2 h. 40 m. 
17. Tartaric acid = 2 h. 30 m. 
18. Oleic acid = 2 h. 20 m. 
19. Boric acid = 2 h. 15 m 
20. Acetic acid = 2 h. 15 ni. 
21. Lactic acid = 2 h. 15 m. 
22. Phosphoric acid = 2 h. 
23. Arsenious acid = 2 h. 
24. Gallic acid = 2 h. 8 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
The test experiment in this set was over in two hours, so 
that the last three caused no delay. The last two owe their 
non-interference in all likelihood to their insolubility. They 
were practically absent. Benzoic acid did not inhibit as 
much as it was expected to, for reasons to be mentioned 
farther on. The nine that caused a delay of over ten hours 
were tried again after reducing to one third the former 
strength. This made them one part in a thousand of the 
solution. The next table gives the new results with the five 
centigrammes. The test time was again two hours. 
1. Chromic acid = over 10 hrs. 
2. Picric acid = “ “ “ 
3. Molybdenic acid-= “ “ “ 
4. Thymic acid = 7 h. 40 m. 
5. Sulphuric acid = 5 h. 10 m. 
Acids. 
6. Hydrobromic a. = 3 h. 50 m. 
7. Salicylic acid == 3 h. 20 m. 
8. Nitric acid = 3 h. 20 m. 
9. Carbolic acid = 3 h. 10 m. 
10. Pyrogallic acid = 2 h. 5 m. 
As three again went over ten hours, at the next trial they 
were reduced again, one centigramme only being used, or 
one part in five thousand. The test time, by increasing 
the pepsin double, was reduced to one hour. Chromic acid 
came out in four hours and forty minutes, picric in four 
hours and a half, and molybdenic about the same. To 
make their effects non-appreciable would require their dilu- 
tion to not less than one part in thirty thousand. Picric 
acid in contact with ground albumin over night causes a 
very marked shrinkage in the volume, so that it appears as 
if the larger bulk of it had been digested without pepsin. 
The following alkaloids and their salts were next tried. The 
test time was again two hours. Three parts in one thou- 
sand were used, or fifteen centigrammes in fifty grammes. 
The first on the list, ferrocyanide of quinine, was complete- 
ly decomposed at the expense of the acid, and, although 
0-4 per cent., or double the usual quantity, was used, its long 
delay was probably due to this. At the end of the experi- DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
9 
inent, considerable Prussian blue had taken the place of the 
now dissolved chloride of quinine. 
1. Ferrocyanide of quinine = 5 h. 30 m. 
2. Citrate of iron and strychnine = 5 h. 20 m. 
3. “ “ “ “ quinine = 6 h. 10 m. 
4. Sulphate of cinchonidiue = 4 h. 30 ra. 
5. “ “ cinchonine = 4 h. 20 m. 
6. “ “ quinidine = 4 h. 20 m. 
7. “ “ quinine = 4 h. 10 m. 
8. Bisulphate of quinine = 4 h. 
9. Sulphate of strychnine = 4 h. 
10. “ “ morphine = 3 h. 40 m. 
11. Tannate of quinine = 3 h. 20 m. 
12. Salicylate of quinine = 3 h. 20 m. 
13. “ “ cinchonidine = 3 h. 10 m. 
14. Chloride of quinine = 3 h. 06 m. 
16. Bromide of quinine = 3 h. 
16. Sulphate of atropine = 3 h. 
17. Hydrochloride of cocaine = 2 h. 60 m. 
18. Chloride of morphine = 2 h. 45 m. 
19. Bromide of caffeine = 2 h. 40 m. 
20. Veratrine 2 h. 40 m. 
21. Strychnine = 2 h. 30 m. 
22. Aconitine = 2 h. 20 m. 
23. Brucine = 2 h. 20 m. 
24. Morphine = 2 h. 15 m. 
26. Acetate of strychnine =r 2 h. 15 m. 
26. Chloride of pilocarpine = 2 h. 15 m. 
27. Acetate of morphine = 2 h. 05 m. 
28. Codeine . = 2 h. 
Alkaloids asd their Salts. 
The last one coming out evenly with the test, showed 
that its presence had not retarded any. It was again tried 
in double the proportion—i. e., three centigrammes in fifty 
grammes. This time it did not come out for two hours and 
forty minutes. 
In testing the essential oils found in the next table, 10 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
fifteen centigrammes were first dissolved in two grammes 
of alcohol and then added to the digesting fluid. Besides 
the usual control containing no drug, an extra one was added 
containing the same amount of alcohol as was used to dis- 
solve the oil. This came out in two hours and ten minutes. 
The delay time of two grammes of alcohol was therefore ten 
minutes. 
Essential Oils. 
1. Cinnamon = over 10 hrs. 
2. Pimento = “ “ “ 
3. Lemon-grass = “ “ “ 
4. Bitter-almond = “ “ “ 
5. Clove = 9 h. 50 m. 
6. Bay — 8 h. 40 m. 
7. Bergamot = 8 h. 40 m. 
8. Sassafras = 8 h. 20 m. 
9. Wintergreen = 5 h. 10 m. 
10. Rose = 4 h. 50 m. 
11. Origanum = 4 li. 20 m. 
12. Citronella = 3 h. 30 m. 
13. Caraway = 3 h. 20 m. 
14. Coriander = 3 h. 20 m. 
15. Spearmint = 3 li. 15 m. 
16. Pennyroyal = 3 h. 15 m. 
17. Aniseed = 3 h. 15 m. 
18. Fennel = 8 h. 15 m. 
19. Lavender = 3 h. 10 m. 
20. Peppermint = 3 h. 10 m. 
21. Thyme = 3 h. 10 m. 
22. Wormwood = 8 h. 10 in. 
23. Erigeron = 3 h. 10 m. 
24. Cajeput = 3 h. 10 ni. 
25. Rosemary = 3 h. 10 m. 
26. Nutmeg = 3 h. 
27. Rose-geranium = 3 h. 
28. Orange = 3 h. 
29. Lemon = 2 h. 55 m. 
30. Wine (ethereal) = 2 h. 50 m. 
31. Amber = 2 h. 50 m. 
32. Neroli (petale) = 2 h. 50 m. 
33. Black-pepper = 2 h. 50 m. 
34. Juniper = 2 h. 40 m. 
35. Savin = 2 h. 40 m. 
36. Cedar = 2 h. 40 m. 
37. Patchouli = 2 h. 40 m. 
38. Croton = 2 h. 20 m. 
39. Sandal-wood = 2 h. 10 m. 
40. Cubeb = 2 h. 10 m. 
41. Turpentine = 2 h. 10 m. 
The first four were again tried with one third the 
amount of essential oil. Bitter almond then came out in 
three hours, and the others in five hours. A glance over 
the table shows that essential oils of similar origin, or de- 
rived from the same natural orders of plants, produce, as a 
rule, results very nearly alike. This is exemplified by the 
labiates spearmint, pennyroyal, lavender, peppermint, and 
thyme. The close relationship of cedar, savin, and juniper, DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
11 
and also of fennel, coriander, and caraway, tell the same story 
for the families to which they belong. It is also somewhat 
singular to find the three oils of sandal-wood, cubeb, and 
turpentine as closely related here as they are in their physio- 
logical indications, although belonging to quite remote 
orders. Four balsams were, like the essential oils, dissolved 
in two grammes of alcohol and then added to the digestive 
fluid with the following results. The Canada balsam dis- 
solved very imperfectly, so that its result is probably short 
of the true figure : 
1. Tolu = 6 h. 30 m. 
2. Peru = 4 h. 20 m. 
Balsams. 
3. Canada = 2 h. 55 m. 
4. Copaiba = 2 h. 40 m. 
In a former paper upon peptonization your essayist de- 
clared that the tinctures tried up to that time seemed to 
retard no more than the alcohol they contained. This has 
since proved to be a grave mistake. Only a few had been 
tried, and they under the influence of comparatively large 
quantities of pepsin. Up to that time, too, the method had 
been to digest a given time and weigh the remaining albu- 
min. This plan was subject to such grave perturbations 
that it was finally abandoned for the better one of complet- 
ing the digestion and taking the time consumed as a stand- 
ard. A large number of tinctures were submitted to this 
method with the following results. The control time was 
again two hours. One gramme of each was added to the 
fifty grammes of fluid : 
Tincturks. 
1. Chloride of iron = over 10 h. 
2. Iodine co. = “ “ “ 
3. Chloride of iron 
(tasteless) = “ “ “ 
4. Guaiaei = “ “ “ 
5. Guaiaei amnion. = “ “ “ 
6. Lupulin = over 10 h. 
7. Belladonna = 9 h. 05 m. 
8. Warburg’s = 8 h. 50 m. 
9. Cannabis ind. = 8 h. 50 in. 
10. Opium = 8 h. 15 m. 
11. Benzoin co. = 6 h. 45 m. 12 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
12. Benzoin simp. = 6 h. 10 m. 
13. Verat. virid. = 5 h. 30 in. 
14. Cubeb = 5 h. 30 m. 
15. Buchu = 5 h. 30 m. 
16. Aloes and myrrh = 5 h. 30 m. 
17. Valer. of ammou. = 5 h. 30 m. 
18. Hyoscyamus — 5 h. 20 m. 
19. Asafoetida = 4 h. 45 m. 
20. Tolu = 4 h. 45 m. 
21. Kino = 4 h. 10 m. 
22. Myrrh = 4 h. 
23. Catechu = 3 h. 45 m. 
24. Colchicum root = 3 h. 35 m. 
25. Digitalis = 3 h. 35 m. 
26. Physostigma = 3 h. 35 m. 
27. Colocynth co. = 3 h. 30 m. 
28. Modif d Warb’rg = 3 h. 30 m. 
29. Avena sativa = 3 h. 30 m. 
30. Santal. = 3 h. 30 m. 
81. Gentian co. = 3 h. 30 m. 
32. Sanguinaria = 3 h. 30 m. 
33. Cinchona simp. =r 3 h, 30 m. 
34. Nux vomica = 3 h. 20 m. 
35. Cascarilla = 3 h. 20 m. 
36. Senega = 3 h. 20 m. 
37. Capsicum = 3 h. 10 m. 
38. Hops = 3 h. 
39. Gentian = 3 h. 
40. Orange-peel = 3 h. 
41. Galls = 3 h. 
42. Senna = 3 h. 
43. Lobelia aether. = 3 h. 
44. Krameria = 3 h. 
45. Quassia = 3 h. 
46. Valerian = 3 li. 
47. Aloes = 3 h. 
48. Colchicum seed = 3 h. 
49. Cinchona co. = 3 h. 
50. Stramonium = 2 h. 55 m. 
51. Cardam. simp. = 2 h. 45 m. 
52. “ co. = 2 h. 45 m. 
53. Lobelia = 2 h. 45 m. 
54. Squills = 2 h. 45 m. 
55. Rhubarb co. = 2 h. 45 m. 
56. Cinnamon = 2 h. 46 m. 
57. Ginger = 2 h. 40 m. 
58. Cantharides = 2 h. 40 m. 
59. Lavender = 2 h. 40 m. 
60. Ipecac co. = 2 h. 30 m. 
61. Poke = 2 h. 30 m. 
62. Rhubarb z= 2 h. 30 m. 
63. Aconite root = 2 h. 30 m. 
64. “ leaf = 2 h. 30 m. 
65. Lemon-peel(fr’sh) = 2 h. 25 m. 
66. Opium, campho- 
rated = 2 h. 20 m. 
67. Colombo = 2 h. 15 m. 
68. Angustura = 2 h. 10 m. 
69. Cochineal = 2 h. 10 m. 
70. Virg. snakeroot = 2 h. 10 m. 
71. Conium = 2 h. 10 rn. 
72. Arnica = 2 h. 10 m. 
73. Dilute alcohol = 2 h. 05 m. 
On another trial with half a gramme each of those that 
failed to complete digestion in the ten hours, the following 
results were had : 
1. Tincture of chloride of iron = over 10 hrs. 
2. “ iodine co. = 9 h. 36 m. 
3. “ chlor. iron (tasteless) = 6 h. 50 m. DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
13 
4. Tincture of guaiaci = 6 h. 10 m. 
5. “ “ ammon. = 6 h. 10 m. 
6. “ lupulin = 5 h. 50 m. 
Tincture of the chloride of iron did not show just how 
thoroughly it retarded until the quantity was cut down to 
two centigrammes, or one part in two thousand five hun- 
dred. Here, then, is the worst tincture in the whole list, 
and it turns out to he the very one that theory has led 
physicians to almost universally prescribe with meals. For- 
tunately, the usual dose is so small that it can do no great 
amount of harm. But why let it do any ? Is it not just as 
well to administer it between meals and allow our pale, 
anaemic patients the advantage of strength from their food 
as well as a richer oxygen-supply in the blood? If we must 
give a tincture of iron with the meals, then we had better 
use Creuse’s tasteless. Even it retards to an injurious ex- 
tent, and would be better given between meals. Some of 
the tinctures that are rarely if ever administered internally 
have the least retarding effect. 
The principal organic bodies used in medicine and sur- 
gery, and not related directly to those already given, consti- 
tute the next table. With every one of these, fifteen centi- 
grammes was the amount used, and two hours constituted 
the control time. 
Organic Substances. 
1. Beta naphthol = 4 h. 60 m. 
2. Santonin, with 2 
grms. alcohol == 4 h. 45 m. 
3. Chloroform = 4 h. 40 m. 
4. Menthol = 3 h. 40 m. 
6. Nitrite of amyl = 3 h. 30 m. 
6. Croton chloral = 2 h. 45 m. 
7. Chloral hydrate = 2 h. 40 m. 
8. Vanillin = 2 h. 40 m. 
9. Antipyrine = 2 h. 15 m. 
10. Concent, sulph. 
ether = 2 h. 15 m. 
11. Powdered gum 
arabic = 2 h. 15 m. 
12. Sweet spirits of 
niter = 2 h. 15 m. 
13. Acetic ether = 2 h. 15 m. 
14. Benzole = 2 h. 15 m. 
16. Salicin = 2 h. 05 m. 
16. Ethyl alcohol = 2 h. 14 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
17. Methyl alcohol = 2 h. 
18. Paraldehyde = 2 h. 
19. Urea = 2 h. 
20. Milk sugar = 2 h. 
21. Cane sugar = 2 h. 
22. Glycerin = 2 li. 
23. Santonin with- 
out alcohol = 2 h. 
The last eight all came out of the bath with the control 
experiment, thus showing that there was no retarding effect. 
No. 23, being insoluble, was corrected by No. 2, where 
it was put into solution with alcohol. With six of the 
other seven it took six trials to discover their retarding 
effect. Urea caused a delay of twenty minutes when 
raised to thirty centigrammes. Methyl alcohol with three 
grammes delayed digestion an hour and thirty minutes 
beyond the control time, paraldehyde with the same 
amount was ten minutes behind this, and ethyl alcohol half 
an hour still longer. When eight grammes of white sugar 
were added to the fifty grammes of digestive fluid, a delay 
of one hour and five minutes over the usual two hours 
occurred, and, when the same amount of sugar of milk was 
put in, it took twenty minutes more than this. It would 
almost seem from these results that every article used in 
medicine had some little retarding power that would reveal 
itself on using it in large enough percentage. White sugar 
had the least of any of those tried. Milk sugar, so com- 
monly mixed with pepsin to form the saccharated, is of no 
earthly advantage in it, and is really an injury to its value. 
The same is true of glycerin, where it is to be put to use 
at once. Six grammes of glycerin in a fifty-gramme mixture 
retard half an hour beyond the control time. As an anti- 
septic to protect the pepsin from bacteria, its utility is un- 
questionable. Common or ethylic alcohol in half the amount 
delays twice as long, so that a wine of pepsin is not so sci- 
entific as a liquid pepsin, although it is not so bad as some 
investigators have tried to make us believe. The usual dose 
of wine of pepsin diluted with the contents of the stomach DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
15 
after a meal will reduce the alcohol to considerably less than 
one per cent. When in this proportion, its effects are in- 
appreciable, and besides this the alcohol must all rapidly 
leave the stomach and allow the pepsin to act unaffected. 
This is probably what occurs where people are in the habit 
of drinking beer or wine with their meals. After stimu- 
lating the peptic glands a little, it rapidly diffuses itself 
through the system, and, as it has no permanent ill effect 
upon the digestive ferment, that at once assumes its proper 
ditties. Along with the organic compounds of the last 
table a trial was made of two compound cathartics and two 
“after-dinner” pills in separate bottles. They came out 
together fifteen minutes after the control bottle, showing 
that their effects upon the digestive fluid are but slight. 
What their presence in the stomach might do by producing 
slight nausea and inhibiting the action of the digestive 
glands is another question that can only be answered by 
experiments upon patients. Of the fluid extracts but fif- 
teen were tried. All of these except rhubarb came out on 
the first trial, when one gramme was used. It afterward 
came out in five hours when reduced to half a gramme. 
Control time, two hours. 
1. Aconite = 2 h. 20 m. 
2. Valerian = 2 h. 30 m. 
3. Taraxacum = 2 h. 30 m. 
4. Licorice =■ 2 h. 30 m. 
5. Gentian = 2 h. 40 m. 
6. Ergot = 2 h. 40 m. 
7. Colchicum root = 3 h. 10 m. 
Fluid Extracts, 
8. Digitalis = 8 h. 20 m. 
9. Wild cherry = 3 h. 30 m. 
10. Buchu = 3 h. 30 in. 
11. Cascara sagrada = 3 h. 30 m. 
12. Buckthorn = 3 h. 30 m. 
13. Guarana = 3 h. 50 m. 
14. Hyoscyamus = 3 h. 50 m 
The methods of manufacturing fluid extracts, the ma- 
terials used, and other considerations with regard to age, 
storage, etc., have such influence upon them that it was 
deemed a waste of labor to spend much time upon them. 16 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
When samples from different makers were compared, the re- 
sults varied so widely that all further investigation was dis- 
continued for the time being. The Pharmacopoeia .does not 
undertake to control their composition beyond telling how 
they shall be made, and it is doubtful whether its directions 
are followed even in this. The different amounts of dry ex- 
tract contained in two samples of the same kind from differ- 
ent makers cause a wide variation in this line of investiga- 
tion fatal to accuracy. This is true to a less degree of 
tinctures. 
Before proceeding to a consideration of the long list of 
inorganic compounds it will be well to now pause and study 
pepsin itself as an organic drug. During this investigation 
fifty pharmacies were visited and their proprietors or mana- 
gers questioned regarding the kinds of pepsin dispensed 
when no particular brand was specified by the physician. 
The inquiry extended to both pure and saccharated. A uni- 
versal complaint against the doctors seemed to obtain in 
almost every place. They said that as a rule medical men 
did not seem to know themselves what they wanted when 
ordering, as the vast majority of them never wrote whether 
they wanted pure or saccharated. Sometimes they judged 
that saccharated was intended because of the large quantity 
called for and the evident poverty of the patient. At other 
times they gave the pure because only a few grains were 
wanted. Now here was a serious consideration for the poor 
dyspeptic or the patient suffering from enteric trouble, to 
say nothing of the child with diphtheria or the man with 
cystic blood-clot. In any such case had a pure pepsin been 
dispensed, one grain of which would digest over six hundred 
grains of albumin in an hour, the effects would vary very 
considerably from that of another where a home-made sac- 
charated was given, one grain of which would barely digest 
six grains of albumin in the same time. The one, you will DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
17 
perceive, would be one hundred times as strong as the other. 
This is no mere fanciful supposition, but actually what 
probably does occur very often in this and other cities of 
the United States. To have the same prescriptions dis- 
pensed, varying one hundred-fold in two contiguous phar- 
macies, because of the doubtful way in which we write them, 
is no light matter. Let such things increase in frequency, 
and universal skepticism of all medical science must be the 
outcome. Little things like this tend even now to make 
pharmacists look upon many physicians with some degree 
of contempt. When ordering pepsin, be sure and tell 
whether pure or saccharated is desired, and do not for- 
get that the average price of the former is live or six 
times that of the latter. Out of the fifty, eleven used 
saccharated of their own make, five choosing Jensen’s to 
make it from, three Fairchild’s, and one each Merck’s, 
Witte’s, and Dieck’s. Most of them took one part of 
pepsin to nineteen parts of sugar of milk; but some 
made it one part to seven. The remaining thirty-nine 
distributed their patronage upon the following brands as 
the figures indicate : 
1. Hawley’s 12 
2. McKesson & Robbins’s 5 
3. Armstrong’s 4 
4. Schieffelin’s 4 
5. Schaffer’s 4 
6. Manlius Smith’s 3 
7. Lazell, Daly & Co.’s 2 
8. Tarrant & Co.’s 2 
9. Lehn & Fink’s 2 
10. Royal 1 
The record of choice on the pure pepsins was lost, but 
Jensen’s led all the rest, taking over one third of the pat- 
ronage. Fairchild’s came next. The following were the 
brands used : 
American. 
1. Fairchild’s Scale. 
2. Fairchild’s Powdered. 
3. Parke, Davis & Co.’s Pure. 
4. Brent, Goode & Co.’s Prorei. 
5. McKesson & Robbins’s Concent. 
6. Armstrong’s Pure. 
7. Kidder’s Crust. 
8. Kidder’s Crust, Powdered, 
9. North’s Pure, 18 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
10. Frazer & Lee’s Pure. 
11. Jensen’s Crystal. 
12. Golden Scale. 
13. Royal Pure. 
14. Dieck’s Pure. 
German. 
15. Witte’s. 
16. Finzelberg’s. 
17. Merck’s Scale. 
18. Merck’s Powdered. 
English. 
19. Bullock & Co., Dr. Beal’s. 
20. Morson’s Porci. 
French. 
21. Boudault’s Acid. 
The peptic power of all these brands varies so widely 
that, as there is no standard by which to gauge them apart, 
both physician and druggist must remain at the mercy of 
accident or chance unless some one takes time to carefully 
work out their comparative merits. The test of the United 
States Pharmacopoeia is worse than useless. No two men 
can get any approach to the same results by following it. 
That of the British is better, but still deficient. No one 
can rub albumin through a sieve and get the same results 
twice. The worn-off brass and its oxidation products retard 
all peptic digestion. On carefully grinding up in a mortar 
at one time enough egg albumin from eggs that had been 
boiled ten minutes to supply five grammes to each of the 
brands named, and after making it so fine that when a 
small mass of it was shaken up in water and held before a 
bright light no piece was so large that it would not pass 
through a forty-mesh sieve, the amount named being placed 
in a two-ounce bottle with forty cubic centimetres of dilute 
hydrochloric acid containing 0-2 per cent, of absolute acid, 
when the amounts of pepsin opposite the numbers given 
were added, in a solution of ten cubic centimetres, 0’2 per 
cent. IIC1, the bottles kept at a temperature of 48° C. to 
50° C. for one hour in a water bath with a double partition 
keeping them from the metal in contact with the flame, and 
shaken every ten minutes, they all came out within five 
minutes of each other with the same small amount of in- 
soluble matter in each. Many experiments were required DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
19 
to find out these figures, and care had to be taken to see that 
air particles did not get entangled with the albumin to keep 
it floating; otherwise a delay would have occurred. In each 
case from ten to fifty times the amount of pepsin given was 
weighed off and dissolved in an accurately measured quan- 
tity of dilute acid, so that the ten cubic centimetres just con- 
tained the required amount. Some of the home-made sac- 
charated samples were not managed thus, owing to the bulk 
required. In one instance it took nearly three grammes to 
do the work. With this we took twenty c. c., leaving thirty 
c. c. to put with the albumin before adding the pepsin. This 
was prepared from a German brand of powdered, and nine- 
teen parts of sugar of milk were added to one of it. The 
druggist was perfectly innocent of any intentional wrong in 
dispensing this. He had used an article made by a firm 
whose reputation for good goods is world-wide. They are no 
doubt themselves unconscious of the horribly poor quality 
of the stuff they are sending out to their patrons. It was 
diluted according to the formula recommended by several 
manufacturers of such goods. Think of it, physicians, and 
beware of your pepsin prescriptions if you want any results 
from them. This make, too, is used all over Europe as well 
as America, although over there they may not dilute it to one 
twentieth its normal strength as is done here. The scale 
pepsin of the same manufacturer, although also very poor, is 
nearly twice as good as the powdered. It is without excep- 
tion the prettiest looking pepsin in the market. The scales 
glisten like silver, and look so clean and nice that, if we 
judged by mere appearances, we should take it every time 
in preference to all others : 
1. 2l£ milligrammes, or 1 to 234 
2. 220 “ “ 1 to 23 
3. 64i “ “ 1 to 78 
4. 37£ “ “ 1 to 135 
5. 29 “ “ 1 to 172 
Saccharated Pepsins. 
6. 44£ milligrammes, or 1 to 112 
7. 174 “ “ 1 to 29 
8. 17li “ “ 1 to 30 
9. 55 “ “ 1 to 91 
10. 93J “ “ 1 to 5 20 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
The poorest of these is beyond the requirements of the 
Pharmacopoeia. It only requires one part to dissolve fifty 
parts in six hours. Here we have nearly one half of it dis- 
solved in one hour. In six hours it would dissolve fully 
double the required amount. But what a wide difference 
in the different brands! No. 1 is ten times as strong as 
No. 2. The home-made articles are all far below the low- 
est of these, and simply because the druggist is misled by 
the false representations of the advertisers in medical and 
pharmaceutical journals. No man can follow the directions 
given and make an average sample of pepsinum saccharatum 
like that found in the market already put up. An examina- 
tion of the pure pepsins, like that of the saccharated and 
under identical conditions, all being tested at once, gave the 
following results : 
1. 10 milligrammes, or 1 to 500 
2. 10ft “ “ 1 to 486 
3. 10| “ “ 1 to 475 
4. 10ft “ “ 1 to 459 
5. 11 “ “ 1 to 454 
6. 12| “ “ 1 to 403 
7. 18? “ “ 1 to 269 
8. 181 “ “ 1 to 266 
9. 21| “ “ 1 to 234 
10. 21? “ “ 1 to 232 
11. 21| “ “ 1 to 236 
Pure Pepsins. 
12. 25 milligrammes, or 1 to 200 
13. 48 “ “ 1 to 104 
14. 45 “ “ 1 to 111 
15. 11| “ “ 1 to 447 
16. 22 “ “ 1 to 227 
17. 80| “ “ 1 to 62 
18. 143 “ “ 1 to 35 
19. 8 “ “1 to 625 
20. 13 “ “ 1 to 385 
21. 20 “ “ 1 to 250 
It is highly probable that the same brand of pepsin 
will vary less or more, according to the quantity in the 
stomach of the animal at the time of death. The process 
of extraction will necessarily keep them from any wide 
variation, but there may-be enough to reverse the positions 
of any two of nearly the same digestive power, if samples 
prepared at different times are used. 
It will be observed that quite a number of these range DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
21 
below the best of the saccharated, although sold at much 
higher prices. The best in the lot is No. 19. It is of Lon- 
don make, and costs the large amount of $4 an ounce, so 
that it is out of the reach of many patients. The poorest 
is No. 18, and is from Germany. It has already been re- 
ferred to. The cheapest of all is No. 1 of the saccharated 
samples, and is made in our own city. Whoever specifies 
and receives it gets more peptic power for the price 
charged than he could of any of the rest. Although only 
purporting to be a saccharated pepsin, it exceeds in digestive 
power many of the more pretentious and dearer articles. 
Among those possessing a high digestive power, and that 
must be used when a concentrated effect is necessary, No. 
1 of the pure pepsins is the best, unless your patients are 
rich enough to pay for the English one already referred to. 
It is the best American pepsin for high peptic power. 
There is a class of goods now on the market known as pep- 
tone pepsins. The best of this kind is No. 11. You see 
from the figures given that it is only a shade better than 
the best saccharated, although costing six times as much. 
The high price charged for it, combined with the vast 
amount of advertising done in its behalf in our medical 
journals, has caused it to take precedence of most others in 
the pharmacies of this city. Never prescribe a peptone 
pepsin unless you give more than double the amount of it 
you would of any good .pure pepsin, and then, remember, 
your patients’ pockets will suffer. Where you must have a 
solution of pepsin in water, then the peptone pepsin is the 
very thing needed. Its great solubility gives it an increased 
value. Five compound pepsins containing pancreatin were 
found upon the market, and tested as to their peptic power 
only. The investigation of trypsin was deferred to a future 
time. These all had trade names attached to them, as fol- 
lows; Laetopeptine, inaltopepsine, speptine, dyspepsyn, and 22 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
lactated pepsin. Their relative powers ranged as the names 
are here given. Such combinations can be of little worth 
to the physician. Tn the stomach, if the pepsin is of any 
value, the other ferments can not be, as they are likely to 
be themselves digested or altered. If the stomach fails to 
act, then in the alkaline duodenum pepsin is useless. Had 
time permitted, this matter would have been put to actual 
test. Another of the peptic ferments with a trade name is 
ingluvin. This is said to be prepared from the digesting 
part of the alimentary tract of chickens. As a digesting 
agent it is almost valueless, and can not convert its own 
weight of albumin into peptone in an hour. A long list of 
elixirs of pepsin and lactopeptine are upon the market and 
being pressed. None of them has the activity of a good 
wine of pepsin, and all those containing ammonio-eitrate of 
bismuth are nearly worthless. Such a combination is only 
a delusion arising from the name bismuth. A soluble salt 
of bismuth can not be substituted for the insoluble ones 
when their value consists in the fact that they are insoluble. 
An elixir of pepsin under the name of digestylin is now 
being advertised by samples among physicians. Its diges- 
tive power is just one tenth that of Hawley’s aromatic 
liquid pepsin. 
We come now to the consideration of inorganic sub- 
stances and their effects upon digestion. It is no doubt 
unnecessary to remind you of tin* fact that no peptic diges- 
tion is possible without some acid, and that therefore all 
alkalies, alkaline carbonates, and such forms of matter as 
are acted upon by hydrochloric acid, are contra-indicated 
when digestion is going on, and must never be prescribed 
with pepsin. To order bicarbonate of sodium and pepsin in 
the same prescription displays lamentable ignorance on the 
part of any physician, and yet it is frequently done. As 
well might you fasten two horses of equal strength back to DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
23 
back, and, by whipping them up, expect work to be done, 
as to hope for any benefit to your patient from such a com- 
bination. If an excess of the sodium is given, and acetic fer- 
mentation is going on, of course the patient will experience 
an advantage from taking it, but he would have had still 
greater benefit if the pepsin had not been given with it. 
As an illustration of the retarding effect of a drug because 
of its consuming the acid, iron reduced by hydrogen will 
answer. This one was quite a surprise when first discov- 
ered, although it should not have been so, as the inference 
a priori of its action is simple. The longer the iron is kept 
in contact with the acid, the more it retards. If put to di- 
gesting at once, the addition of an extra supply of acid 
hastens the work. Fifteen centigrammes delayed digestion 
390 minutes after the two hours of the control experiment 
were up. By raising the acid strength to 0'4 per cent., the 
same amount only delayed 210 minutes. 
The following list is that of the worst retarders yet 
found. Oidy five milligrammes, or one part in ten thou- 
sand, were necessary to produce the delay mentioned. The 
control time is already subtracted in this and all subsequent 
tables. The time is given in minutes only : 
Minutes. 
1. Molybdate of ammonium .. 190 
2. Molybdenate of sodium.... 180 
3. Permanganate of potass’m „ 130 
Minutes. 
4. Chloride of platinum 60 
5. Potassio-mercuric iodide... 60 
The uext list comprises those that allowed digestion to 
finish after delaying the indicated time, when one centi- 
gramme, or one part in five thousand, was used. The two 
hours of control time are extracted : 
Minutes. 
1. Ammonio-ferric alum 330 
2. Ferricyanide of potassium.. 320 
3. Ferrocyanide of potassium. 260 
4. Sulphate of iron 130 
5. Bichromate of potassium.. 130 
6. Chromate of potassium.... 60 
Minutes. 
7. Sol. of perchloride of iron 50 
8. Salicylate of lithium 30 
9. Chloride of gold 20 
10. Bichloride of mercury.... 15 
11. Sulphate of sodium 15 
12. Sulphate of potassium.... 15 24 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
The following were tested from 150 up to 50 milli- 
grammes, and when of the latter strength they delayed as 
follows: 
Minutes. 
1. Ammonium sulphite 460 
2. Magnesium sulphate 330 
3. Iron and potass, tart 290 
4. Antimony and potass, tart. 100 
Minutes. 
5. Mercuric nitrate 80 
6. Cadmium iodide 50 
7. Sodium hyposulphite 20 
The next long list is composed of such non-organic 
drugs as digested the submitted albumin in the time 
named, plus the two hours of control time, when fifteen 
centigrammes were added to the fifty grammes. The pro- 
portion was therefore three parts to one thousand. 
Minutes. 
1. Chloride of ammonium... 320 
2. “ “ calcium 250 
3. “ “ sodium 200 
4. “ “ antimony 160 
5. “ “ potassium.... 90 
6. “ “ lithium 60 
7. Bromide of iron 360 
8. “ “ ammonium... 200 
9. “ “ lithium 120 
10. “ “ sodium 100 
11. “ “ cerium....... 90 
12. “ “ potassium.... 60 
13. Iodide of potassium 200 
14. “ “ arsenic 190 
15. “ “ sodium 180 
16. “ “ ammonium 170 
17. “ “ lead 60 
18. “ “ calcium 5 
19. Nitrate of sodium 450 
20. “ “ potassium 390 
21. “ “ strontium 380 
22. “ “ uranium 310 
23. Benzoate of sodium 160 
24. “ “ ammonium .. 160 
25. “ “ lithium 140 
Minntes. 
26. Benzoate of potassium ... 110 
27. Sulphide of potassium.... 650 
28. Sulphate of ammon. and 
alumin 750 
29. Sulphate of copper 720 
30. “ “ magnesium .. 690 
31. Ilypophosphite of manga- 
nese 80 
32. Ilypophosphite of sodium. 60 
33. Ilypophosphite of potas- 
sium 40 
34. Chlorate of sodium 280 
35. “ “ potassium.... 200 
36. Acetate of sodium 30 
37. “ “ ammonium.... 30 
38. Sulphocarbolate of zinc... 140 
39. “ “ sodium 80 
40. Phosphate of iron 60 
41. “ “ sodium 30 
42. Salicylate of sodium 690 
43. “ “ potassium... 360 
44. Valerianate of ammonium. 60 
45. “ “ zinc 30 
46. Ammon, citr. of iron 410 
47. “ “ “ bismuth.. 90 DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
25 
Minutes. 
48. Sulphite of sodium 330 
49. Citrate of iron, U. S 60 
50. Oxalate of cerium 60 
51. liactophosphate of calcium 10 
Minutes. 
52. Biborate of sodium 10 
53. Arsenate of sodium 10 
54. Cyanide of potassium .... 5 
A glance over this list shows that the sulphates are the 
most active inhibitors of digestion. Among the alkaloidal 
salts the same was the case. Why sulphate of quinine ever 
came to be so universally prescribed in preference to the 
much better chloride is hard to tell. The same is true of 
sulphate of morphine. In the chlorides there is more of 
the active principle to the same weight, they are much more 
soluble in the gastric juice, and they retard digestion less. 
Next to the sulphates the nitrates are the great retarders. 
The bromides average lower than the chlorides, while the 
latter are about even with the iodides. Bromide of iron 
ranges high, like many of the iron non-organic salts. 
Dialysed iron and the solution of pernitrate of iron re- 
tarded respectively 150 and 110 minutes when fifteen centi- 
grammes were used, which is lower than the run of their 
class. The salicylates are far above the benzoates, and 
the chlorates hinder much more than the chlorides. The 
general run of all agrees very well with the activity of their 
acids, according to a preceding table. The next list com- 
prises those having the least retarding power of any tried. 
When fifteen centigrammes were used, no effect could be 
perceived. The amount was therefore doubled, thus mak- 
ing three parts in five hundred. 
1. Acetate of potassium 280 
2. Citrate of potassium 90 
3. Phosphate of calcium 60 
4. Tartrate of potassium 50 
5. Rochelle salts 20 
6. Acetate of lead 5 
It has been observed during this investigation that anti- 
septics averaged ltigh as retarders, and an approach is made 
by them in this power that runs nearly parallel with their 
germ-destroying power. Potassio-mercuric iodide, the most 26 
DRUGS AND DIGESTION. 
potent germicide known, was found to hold back digestion 
one hour when only one [tart in ten thousand was used. 
Bichloride of mercury required but one part in five thou- 
sand to retard fifteen minutes. While there are substances 
not know n to be germicides that retard still more, still it is 
somewhat curious to find this class range so high, and at 
the same time occupying positions toward each other that 
suggest the order of their germ-destroying power. The 
molybdates seem to lead everything else as inhibitors, and 
they are the very best-known precipitants of peptone. 
Homoeopathists should make some “provings” upon the 
salts of molybdenum, and use them as cures for dyspepsia. 
They would certainly have similar results from the drug as 
from the disease. REASON’S why 
Physicians should Suhscrihe 
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