362 PROCEEDmGS OP THE ACADEMY 01* [1886. 



the hollow tip of each, was a delicate thread, bearing a string of 

 dew-like drops glistening brightly in the candle-light. Further 

 search revealed numerous specimens in which the lime-water 

 trickling down the stalactite met a similar filament, and being 

 partially diverted bad formed a drop at the point of junction; 

 about this drop beautiful aragonite spicules were forming the 

 hollow horizontal branch, the drop of water in the end being 

 retained in position by the filament piercing it, and upon which 

 it is gradually pushed along as evaporation deposits the lime 

 behind it. The length of the branch depends, of course, upon 

 the length of time in which the filament remains intact. 



These filaments, which are thus seen to be the cause of the 

 formation of lateral offshoots to stalactites, are the products of a 

 small cave spider. 



November 30. 



The President, Dr. Jos. Leidy, in the chair. 



Thirty-three persons present. 



A paper entitled " On Schorlomite as a variety of Melanite," 

 by Geo. A. Koenig, M. D., was presented for publication. 



On Hsematoxylin in the Bark of Saraca Indica. Miss Helen 

 C. De S. Abbott stated that De Candolle ^ and Linnseus describe 

 Saraca Indica as a member of the famil}- Leguminosse. Accord- 

 ing to De Candolle it belongs to the genus Jonesia, Saraca Linn., 

 and is separated by five genera from the genus Hsematoxylon or 

 the logwood. 



In an article on certain drugs indigenous to India, Dr. Waring^ 

 gives an account of the medicinal uses of the bark of Saraca 

 Indica. The attention of Messrs. Parke, Davis & Co., Detroit, 

 Michigan, was called to this drug, and through their correspond- 

 ents in India they secured a supply, samples of which have been 

 submitted to the speaker for a chemical analysis. The full 

 results of this analysis will appear elsewhere, but it is now 

 desired to announce a discovery of practical and scientific 

 interest in this connection. 



A coloring principle, identical with logwood dye, has been 

 isolated by her from the bark of Saraca Indica^ where it existed 

 in two conditions, as hsematoxylin and an oxidized product. 

 The former was separated as yellow crystals, analogous in form 

 to haematoxylin crystals from the true logwood, Hsematoxylon 

 campechianum. The alcoholic extract of the bark contained 

 about 18 per cent, of a red colored substance, which agreed in 

 color and dye tests with a like constituent found in logwood. 



' Pro. Sys. Nat. Reg. Vegetabilis, vol. ii, p. 487. 

 ^ British Med. Jour., June 6, 1885, p. 1145. 



