2. Alcohol is a narcotic drug, and a habit-forming drug. Physicians ordering this preparation may, by so doing, be initiating the alcohol habit. 3. Whatever result is obtained by the use of Hayden’s Viburnum Compound in the treatment of uterine or pelvic disturbances, is due to the alcohol it contains. The fact that menstrual pains are likely to recur might, when this preparation is relied on, become a factor in the formation of the alcohol habit. 4. Whatever result is obtained by the administration of Hayden’s Viburnum Compound in the treatment of gastro-intestinal disturbances is due to the alcohol and the aromatics it contains. 5. Whisky has the same alcoholic content (50 per cent.) as Hayden’s Viburnum Compound; the dangers in the use of whisky are well known and its value as a therapeutic agent is being questioned more and more every year. Holding the exploitation of this proprietary a danger to the public and a detriment to scientific medicine, the referee recommends publication of this report as a protest against such irrational therapeutics. The profession should recognize that most, if not all, of the preparations recommended for painful menstruation and for all kinds of pelvic pain contain large percentages of alcohol, and that whatever physiologic effect is produced is, for all practical purposes, due to the alcohol.--(_From The Journal A. M. A., Jan. 23, 1915._) VIN MARIANI Report by Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry--With Comments Thereon This preparation was assigned to a subcommittee of the Council and the following is an abstract of the report of the committee: Samples of Vin Mariani and of the literature distributed by the manufacturers were examined. It appears that the beverage or medicine known as “Vin Mariani” is a preparation of red wine, apparently imported from Bordeaux, and fortified, in this country, by an alcoholic preparation of coca leaves or other parts of the coca plant. The committee considered first, the character of the red wine as imported. A sample received from the port of New York, March 10, 1905, from Henry Clausel & Co., Bordeaux, and consigned to Mariani & Co., on analysis was found to have the following composition: Specific gravity 0.9959 Alcohol by volume per cent. 10.99 Extract per cent. 2.279 Volatile acids per cent. 0.0914 Ash per cent. 0.2801 Reducing sugar trace. Pol. direct degrees --0.8 Pol. invert degrees --0.7 K.So M. per liter 0.092 A sample of Vin Mariani, as bought in the open market in an original package, has also been analyzed and found to have the following composition: