it took for the therapeutic effects to kick in. Theobromine Theobromine acts in a similar fashion as caffeine but less extreme which is why French clinicians recommend the use of theobromine as a cardiac stimulant. However, due to its irritative quality on the kidneys, acettheobromine and acettheocin sodium are preferred over theobromine sodium salicylate. Aconite Aconitum is the dried tuberous root of a plant aconitum napellus which has three pharmalogical actions upon the circulatory system. One function is to stimulate the vagus nerve quickly and to a high degree. Another function of aconite is to diminish the size and force of cardiac contractions while accelerating the heart, and the third function of aconite is to stimulate the vasomotor center. This drug, however, lowers the activity of the respiratory center and may cause dyspnoea, shortness of breath. Adrenaline Adrenaline was found to raise the blood-pressure by constricting the peripheral blood-vessels and stimulating the heart. However, because of its poor longevity, effects lasting for one to two minutes, it was deemed useless. Epsom Salt In 1934, Arthur Hirschfelder and his technician Victor Haury researched on the epsom salt purgation in nephritis. Their results indicated that when a person without injured kidneys ingested epsom salt, despite the amount of magnesium absorbed into the body, the concentration of magnesium in the blood remained unaffected and in the normal range (1.8-2.5 mg). However, in nephritic patients, the magnesium excreted by the kidneys is lower than normal and therefore produces an exponential increase in plasma magnesium, magnesium in the blood when a single dose of epsom salt is ingested. If the plasma magnesium level is to exceed 17 mg per hundred cubic centimeters of blood, the patient will fall into a coma. In their study on animals, results indicated that those with a slightly raised plasma magnesium level (5 or more mg) are more sensitive to normal doses of morphine. Hirschfelder states that that is why Dr. Osler said, "in severe nephritics and very old persons morphine should be given with caution". Publications In 1910, Hirschfelder published Disease of the Heart and Aorta which was highly influential and regarded as the first complete monograph on the subject published in the United States. An Investigation of the Louse Problem by Arthur Douglass Hirschfelder and William Moore was published in 1919. "Clinical Manifestations of High and Low Plasma Magnesium- Dangers of Epsom salt Purgation in Nephritis" published in