HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



177 



A third base has also been detected and named 

 "igasuria." 



The action of Niix vomica is a powerful excitant 

 of the spinal system of nerves, poisonous, producing 

 tetanic convulsions without affecting the brain. It 

 is used in the form of a powder or other extract, is 

 employed as a stimulant of the nervous system in 

 cases of paralysis, etc. 



Strychnia is the crystalline alkaline prepared from 

 the seeds, occurring when pure as white, brilliant, 

 oblique octahedra ; or as elongated four-sided 

 prisms, or even sometimes seen in a simple granular 

 state. It is so intensely bitter that one part is 

 perceptible in 60,000 parts of water. The strychnia 

 as sold is seldom or never pure. It contains brucia 

 and colouring matter, as well as lime and magnesia. 



Brucia resembles strychnia, although not so power- 

 ful ; it crystallizes in transparent crystals, or in pearly 

 scales. 



Strychnia is employed for the same purposes as 



Fig. iiS. — Garcinia vtangostana, 



Nux vomica, but only in very small doses. The first 

 effects experienced from a dose are twitches in the 

 muscles. In larger doses, tetanic.spasms ensue, and 

 a tendency to lock-jaw. It is so powerful that Dr. 

 Christison mentions that he has seen a dog killed in 

 two minutes, when not more than the sixth part of a 

 grain has been injected into the animal's chest. It is 

 also stated that as small a quantity as ^j^ part of a 

 grain, diffused in the water in which a frog is immersed, 

 will cause the animal to have tetanic convulsions. 



GUTTIFER/E. 



Mangosteen or Mangusteen. — This most 

 delicious of all tropical fruits is produced by Garcinia 

 viangostana, L. (Fig. 1 18), a plant belonging to the 

 GuttiferK. It is a native of the Malay Archipelago, 

 where it is cultivated, as well as in the southern and 



eastern parts of India, although the fruits produced 

 in the Malay Islands are much superior in flavour to 

 those grown in India. It is a tree about twenty feet 

 in height, with regular horizontal branches. Leaves 

 rather rhomboidal, obtuse, opposite, coriaceous, 

 smooth, dark-green above, paler beneath. Male 

 flowers clustered ; female flowers solitary, terminal, 

 about the size and colour of a dog-rose. Fruit round, 

 about the size of an orange ; when ripe, with a 

 yellowish-brown, toughish rind, enclosing a most 

 delicious white pulp. 



It is undoubtedly the most delicious fruit. Abel 

 says, " We were anxious to carry away some precise 

 expression of its flavour, but after satisfying ourselves 

 that it partook of the compound flavour of the pine- 

 apple and peach, we were obliged to confess that it 

 had many other equally good and utterly inexpressible 

 flavours." Wallace says in his ' Malay Archi- 

 pelago,' page 84, "The Dyaks brought us daily heaped - 

 up baskets of mangusteens and lansats, two of the 

 most delicious of the sub-acid fruits." 



It is said that any (juantity of the fruit may be 

 taken without injury. As well as being largely used 

 as a luxury, it is given in cases of fever with the 

 sweet orange. In the year 1855 the tree first pro- 

 duced flowers and fruit in this country, at Sion 

 House, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland. 



J. T. R. 



A VENERABLE NATURALIST: MR. JOHN 

 RALFS. 



[Concluded Jrom p. 128.] 



W^'HEN he received Mr. Borrer's letter Mr. 

 Ralfs was in ill-health, but the idea which 

 he had dropped in a moment of anger, and which 

 his friend had accepted with such enthusiasm, was 

 too good to be dismissed in a hurry ; and after due 

 consideration, he determined to carry it into execution. 

 But in the meantime Hassall's " History of the British 

 Fresh-water Algae, including descriptions of the 

 Desmidere and Diatomaceae," had appeared. It was 

 accorded a cool reception by the scientific papers, 

 and in nearly every case praise was distinctly 

 qualified, A review appeared in the "Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural History ; " it was on the whole 

 favourable, but the reviewer strongly condemned the 

 scanty amount of credit which the author gave to Mr. 

 Ralfs and Mr. Jenner. This review is noteworthy 

 on one or two points. When Mr. Hassall's book 

 appeared, Mr. Borrer sent a copy of it to Mr. Ralfs : 

 and a short time afterwards Taylor, the general editor 

 of the " Annals," wrote to Mr. Ralfs on the subject of 

 the recent work. In reply, Mr. Ralfs, sinking his own 

 personal interest, pointed out some blunders, and 

 demonstrated that, even in conveying matter from 

 another man's work, the author was careless and 

 untrustworthy. Most of Mr. Ralfs' remarks were 

 coolly appropriated by the reviewer ! 



