The claims made for nostrums advertised for the reduction of corpulence are, as a rule, rather less extravagant than usual. A reason for this is not far to seek; it is important that the consumer of the medicine shall be encouraged to persist in its use for a considerable time, and statements as to rapid cure might very soon be found to be at variance with the facts and would probably only lead to discontinuance of the medicine, and therefore defeat the maker’s object. Nevertheless, the emphatic and confident statements, backed by testimonials, so important a weapon of the nostrum vendor, are by no means abandoned, as some of the quotations below will show. The prices named for the various articles described refer, as a rule, to the smallest size of package; in most cases larger packages, containing sufficient for several weeks’ or months’ consumption, are supplied at proportionally lower rates, and purchasers are urged to obtain these larger packages. While certain of these preparations present no particular difficulty to the analyst, the majority not only contain vegetable preparations devoid of well-marked characters, but since the most important of these, extract and fluid extract of _Fucus vesiculosus_, are not prepared according to any official formula, and are naturally therefore liable to great variation, it is not possible to arrive with perfect certainty at the precise composition of such articles by analysis; and when, as in the case of any nostrum, the maker can draw on all unofficial and even non-medicinal substances for his ingredients, it is inevitable that some shall remain not certainly identified. It may fairly be assumed, however, that such unknown substances, possessing no well-defined chemical characters, will not be likely to have much, if any, therapeutic importance. The belief that sucking lemons will make one thin is widespread, and gave origin a few years ago to a passing fashion, so that it was impossible to go anywhere, in private house or club, without meeting some gouty man or too stout lady who asserted that a sure cure and preventive for either condition was some drink made with a fresh lemon. It was not surprising, therefore, to find that the chief ingredient in two of the secret remedies first analysed was citric acid. Bladderwrack (_Fucus vesiculosus_) is a common seaweed which has earned, it is not quite easy to understand on what grounds, a reputation for reducing corpulency. It contains sodium salts in rather large quantities, and a small proportion of iodine, much less than many other sea-weeds. In Ireland it was once thought to be good for pigs, making them fat, and if it has an opposite effect on human beings, that effect must be very slight and uncertain.