POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



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Association for the present year ; Prof. R. 

 H. Thurston, of the Stevens Technological 

 Institute, Hoboken, Vice-President of the 

 Physical Section ; Prof. Augustus R. Grote, 

 Vice-President of the Section of Natural His- 

 tory ; Prof. H. Carrington Bolton, of Colum- 

 bia College, New York, General Secretary ; 

 Prof. Francis E. Nipher, St. Louis Universi- 

 ty, Secretary of Section A ; George Little, 

 Atlanta, Georgia, Secretary of Section B ; 

 William S. Vaux, Philadelphia, Treasurer; 

 chairman of Chemical Sub-section, Prof. P. 

 W. Clarke, of the University of Cincinnati. 

 The Association will meet next year in St. 

 Louis, on the third Wednesday of August. 

 The address of Prof. 0. C. Marsh, as Vice- 

 President of Section B, at the Nashville 

 meeting, on the " Introduction and Succes- 

 sion of Vertebrate Life in America," was a 

 paper of extraordinary interest, embodying 

 the results of its author's fruitful researches 

 into the paleontology of this continent. 

 Prof. Grote advocated the creation of an 

 International Scientific Service, or organi- 

 zation for the advancement of knowledge. 

 We shall in future numbers of the Monthly 

 publish abstracts of some of the more inter- 

 esting papers read at this meeting of the 

 Association. 



The Ciuciiona Alkaloids. Of all the spe. 

 cies of cinchona-trees planted in the Nilgiri 

 Hills district of India, the red-bark, or C. 

 succirubra, has succeeded best ; indeed, 

 none of the other species appear to thrive 

 in the Nilgiri plantations, and they are rap- 

 idly giving way before the red-bark cin- 

 chona-tree. The bark of the latter contains 

 only a small proportion of the alkaloid qui- 

 nine as compared with the other three prin- 

 cipal alkaloids cinchonine, cinchonidine, 

 and quinidine and hence the promise of 

 .an abundant supply of the first-named alka- 

 loid from the Indian plantations is not ful- 

 filled. Hence, if the febrifuge properties of 

 the cinchona were confined to the alkaloid 

 quinine, we should have to pronounce these 

 plantations a failure. But it appears to be 

 still an open question whether quinine is 

 entitled to this preeminence. Indeed, there 

 is good reason for believing that the kind 

 of bark which earned for the cinchona-tree 

 its reputation had for its predominant al- 

 kaloid cinchonidine. Within a few years, 

 medical commissions have been appointed 



in Madras and Bombay to determine the re- 

 spective values of the four alkaloids as feb- 

 rifuges. The result arrived at by the Ma- 

 dras commission, as stated by Dr. B. H. Paul, 

 in a paper read before the London Society of 

 Arts, was to the effect that, " in recent cases 

 of uncomplicated paroxysmal fever, there 

 did not seem to be any great superiority of 

 one cinchona alkaloid over another." The 

 numerical results on which the commission 

 founded its conclusions were as follows : 



Cured. 



Treated by cinchonine 410 400 



" " cinchonidine 859 346 



" " quinidine 376 365 



In subsequent trials these alkaloids were 

 compared with quinine, and the total num- 

 ber of cases treated was 2,472, and of these 

 2,445 were cured. The ratio of failure per 

 1,000 cases was as follows : 



Quinine 7.092 



Quinidine 6.024 



Cinchonidine 9.925 



Cinchonine 23.255 



Which appears to show that the first three 

 are nearly equal in their febrifuge proper- 

 ties. 



Treatment of the Opiaiu-HaMt. The 



English Church Mission supports at Hang- 

 chow, China, an " opium-refuge," or hos- 

 pital for the treatment of smokers of opium. 

 The capacity of this hospital, as we learn 

 from the Journal of Inebriety, is for about 

 thirty patients, and there are generally about 

 as many applications for admission as can 

 be granted. Persons wishing to be ad- 

 mitted make their applications on or before 

 the beginning of a month ; all the patients 

 for one month being admitted on the same 

 day, and remaining in the hospital for three 

 weeks. In this way, twelve classes of pa- 

 tients are turned out each year, and there is 

 one week in each month for cleansing the 

 hospital. The treatment is directed simply 

 to relieving the malaise and depression 

 caused by discontinuance of opium, and 

 the physician in charge states that at the 

 end of three weeks the patients can entirely 

 dispense with the drug without physical in- 

 convenience. One strange fact is developed 

 by this benevolent enterprise. Some of the 

 patients enter the refuge without any desire 

 of giving up opium. They have gone so far 

 that a large quantity is required to satisfy 



