Abstract
A method for assaying digitalis and other drugs of this group by the use of cats was outlined. The procedure was practically identical with the Hatcher-Ouabain Method, as published in the American Journal of Pharmacy, 1910, but differed in the important point of completing the test with the digitalis to be standardized, rather than with a standard Ouabain solution. Results by this method, it was stated, were comparable with those obtained with Ouabain, and as accurate as the use of frogs or guinea pigs for determining toxicity. Regulating the dose and rate of flow in proportion to the weight of the animal was held to be important, if satisfactory results were to be obtained. The use of the cat was held to possess distinct advantages in that it afforded the analyst the opportunity of recording the exact action of the preparation upon the heart. It was held to be a possibility that further work might result in a method for measuring the total therapeutic activity, as well as the toxicity.
Results were submitted showing that the first year's growth digitalis leaves as produced at the University of Minnesota during 1922 were the equal in every way with respect to therapeutic value to leaves collected from second year's growth, provided the long petioles which frequently develop during the first year's growth were not included in the drug. The petioles, it was pointed out, represented 40 per cent. of the weight of the entire dried leaf. The general practice is not to collect these long leaf stalks. The leaf stalks or petioles were stated to be only about one-quarter as rich in therapeutic constituents as the lamina.
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