These various statements as to the composition of Bromidia leave one very much “in the air.” As chloral and potassium bromid are easily determined and since lying on the labels of widely exploited proprietaries has become somewhat risky recently, it is probable that the statements on the trade package are to be depended on and that each fluidram of Bromidia contains something like 12 grains each of chloral and potassium bromid and not 15 grains as the medical profession has been and is being told. Pharmacists who have attempted to put up a nonproprietary preparation similar to or, more correctly, having the alleged composition of Bromidia have found it practically impossible to do so. The reason is that extract of cannabis indica is almost insoluble in a menstruum such as that found in Bromidia. The National Formulary, first edition, listed Mistura Chlorali et Potassii Bromidi Composita of which it was said: “Each fluidram contains 15 grains each of Chloral and of Bromid of Potassium, and 1/8 grain each of Extract of Indian Cannabis and Extract of Hyoscyamus.” In this the pharmacists attempted to incorporate the cannabis indica by using the tincture of the drug and suspending it by the addition of tincture of soap bark. In the present edition of the National Formulary, the preparation is made by triturating the extract of cannabis indica with pumice stone and then filtering the finished product. This gives an “elegant” preparation--but one from which the cannabis indica is filtered out! A sad commentary on the National Formulary. It should not be supposed, however, that the manufacturers of Bromidia have solved the problem that has baffled the pharmacists; not at all. Bromidia probably contains no more cannabis indica than does its National Formulary prototype. The statement on the present trade packages, that the amount of cannabis indica in Bromidia is “indeterminate,” is but a tardy acknowledgment of the fact that the stuff has not, and never had, the amount of cannabis indica claimed for it for so many years. The “indications” named on the Bromidia labels are, in common with nostrums of this type, but suggestions for self-drugging. They will appeal to the layman who has purchased, either by prescription or otherwise, an “original package” of Bromidia and who may imagine he suffers from “nervousness,” “sleeplessness,” “headache” or “neuralgia.”