460 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ration, was treated with a small quantity of carbonate of magnesia to 

 saturate the acid it contained 5 an insoluble salt was formed, which 

 being separated by the filter was found to be gallate of magnesia, but 

 in very small quantity. 



The solution again evaporated to dryness on a salt-water bath yielded 

 a brown extract, which attracted moisture slightly. This extract being 

 digested in cold alcohol, the resin and emetin were dissolved, and the 

 other substances remained unacted upon : the solution after filtration 

 was evaporated in a similar way, a dark-coloured extract obtained, 

 which being treated with hot water the emetin was dissolved and the 

 resin separated. 



The solution of emetin gently evaporated to dryness, weighed a 

 gramme and a half. On again treating, the precipitate formed, at the 

 time of the separation of the emetin and resin, with hot alcohol, and 

 filtering it, a fatty matter and wax separated on cooling : the residuum 

 being treated with cold water, the gum was separated, and the amy- 

 laceous fecula was precipitated. During the exposure of the emetin 

 to heat, a pellicle of small crystalline scales is formed, which is pro- 

 bably the matter that imparts bitterness and acridity to the emetin. 

 Sixteen parts of the root appear to consist of 



Emetine 1*50 



Resin 0*60 



Gum 0-20 



Albumen. 030 



Starch 320 



Crystalline scaly matter 0*85 



Ligneous matter 7*00 



Fatty matter, wax, and loss 0*05 



1600* 



PROSPECTUS OF A PLAN FOR INVESTIGATING THE NATURAL 

 PRODUCTIONS OF JAMAICA. 



It is with great pleasure that we give insertion to the following cir- 

 cular, which has been transmitted to us for that purpose : we hope, 

 for the interests of science, that the proposed investigation will speedily 

 be set on foot. 



" It has long been matter of regret among men of science, that those 

 natural productions of Jamaica which are not as yet the immediate 

 objects of commerce, should be so little known in England. Its ge- 

 ology and mineralogy have been but partially examined. The history 

 of its quadrupeds, birds, insects, reptiles, and fish, has been almost 

 entirely neglected. The botany has, indeed, been more attended to ; 

 but it is acknowledged by the most intelligent men, and among the 

 rest by Humboldt, that there is no tropical region where the native 

 plants have been as yet accurately enumerated -, that the Flora of 

 none of the greater islands of the Antilles has been properly examined ; 

 and that, even in our times, travellers in Hispaniola, Jamaica and 

 Cuba, daily find lofty trees which constitute new genera; while the 



♦There is a considerable error in the statement of this analysis ; the 

 products amount to only 13*65 instead of 1595, as here stated.— Edit. 



medicinal 



