Antaphrodisiacs.

Selected writings of John King.

Every now and then some one brings forward what is supposed to be a new remedy for conditions difficult to rectify and is over-enthusiastic in the praise of it as an infallible remedy. Often a non-familiarity with the older writers gives him the impression that he has discovered something entirely new. This brief note concerning Salix nigra was one of the few instances in which Professor King attempts to correct this habit of positive statement concerning drugs new to the individual but old in medical literature. The careful investigator will avail himself of the sources of knowledge now available and for this purpose the use of such great collections as the Lloyd Library are now freely and cheerfully offered to the student-investigator.—Ed. Gleaner.

ANTAPHRODISIACS.—In the August number I notice what is supposed to be the introduction of a new sexual sedative. In the several late editions of my American Dispensatory, and under the heads of Salix Nigra and Gnaphalium polycephalum, will be found statements of the antaphrodisiac properties of these agents which I have successfully used in practice for many years, as have also several of my medical friends. These articles will not, however, prove infallible specifics, as they will occasionally fail of producing any desirable effects in certain cases, the same as with many other valuable agents that are administered to overcome certain symptoms or to effect certain results.—J. KING, Eclectic Medical Journal, 1886.

The Biographies of King, Howe, and Scudder, 1912, was written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M. D.