The imminent danger of substituting heroin for either morphin or cocain is shown by the fact, reported by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, that during the early months of 1913 the coroner’s office in Philadelphia County, Pa., held inquests on five sudden deaths from heroin poisoning. In each case the victim was a heroin fiend and took an overdose. Drug fiends are apparently able to consume relatively large quantities of morphin or cocain, but any sudden and material increase in the amount of heroin taken is liable to prove fatal. As indicating the wide sale of this substance, it is known that one druggist in Pennsylvania whose store is located in an undesirable section of his city has been buying heroin tablets in 25,000 lots. GLYCO-HEROIN, SMITH, A “PATENT MEDICINE” The popularity of Glyco-Heroin, Smith, as a household nostrum is suggested by the fact that one of the larger department-store type of drug-stores in the city of Philadelphia lists this preparation in its “patent-medicine” catalogue at $1.75 per bottle and sells it freely to all who care to buy. This is due to the fact that Pennsylvania, like many other states, does not include heroin in the prohibited list of habit-forming drugs that can be supplied only on physicians’ prescriptions. To what extent Glyco-Heroin, Smith, is responsible for developing the rapidly growing heroin habit is of course problematic. It is reasonable, however, to suppose that a preparation, each teaspoonful of which contains so large a dose of heroin as does this nostrum, when taken as repeatedly and as indiscriminately as is directed by the manufacturer, would offer possibilities for harm sufficient in number to induce the thinking medical practitioner to avoid its use altogether and at least to suggest to even the most commercial dabbler in the healing art the desirability of carefully considering its potency for harm before endorsing its use in the treatment of “cough and kindred affections.”--(_From the Journal A. M. A., June 6, 1914._) GLYCO-THYMOLINE Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry The Council, having voted that Glyco-Thymoline be refused recognition, authorized publication of the following report. W. A. Puckner, Secretary Glyco-Thymoline (Kress and Owen Company, New York) is a typical example of a “patent medicine” advertised to the public through the doctors. Bottles of the mixture with the name blown in the glass are issued to physicians for distribution to patients, and the circular which comes around the bottle more or less directly recommends it for use in almost every form of infectious disease. COMPOSITION AND VARYING FORMULAS Different formulas for Glyco-Thymoline have appeared. At one time it was said to contain: