Dr Maclagan on the Beebeeru Tree, 197 



2. Biographical Sketch of the late Sir Charles Bell By Sir 



John MacNeill. 



3. Notice regarding the Bebeeru Tree of British Guiana. By 



Dr A. Douglas Maclagan. 



The plant bearing the above Indian name, and also called Si- 

 peeri by the Dutch colonists, furnishes the hard and heavy timber 

 known by the name of Greenheart. The object of the present 

 paper was to state the result of experiments made by the author on 

 the bark and seeds of the tree, which had been found by Mr Rodie, 

 R.N., to contain a vegetable alkali possessed of the power of check- 

 ing intermittent fevers. Dr Maclagan stated that the tree was un- 

 known to botanists. Sir William Hooker and Dr Lindley had seen 

 the fruit and declared it to be lauraceous, but the author had been 

 unable to find, in Rees v. Esenbeck's Sy sterna Launnarum, any 

 genus or even sub-order of lauraceous plants, to which he could 

 refer it. With regard to its chemical qualities, Dr M. stated that 

 he had obtained both from the bark and seeds two distinct alkalis, 

 both uncrystallizable, to one of which he applied Mr Rodie's name, 

 Bebeerine; to the other he gave the name of Sipeerine. They 

 could be separated by anhydrous ether, the bebeerine being soluble 

 in that menstruum, whilst the sipeerine was not. Dr M. had like- 

 wise obtained, especially from the seeds, a peculiar crystallizable 

 and deliquescent acid., which he called Bebecric acid, and which 

 seemed to be distinct from every vegetable acid hitherto described. 



The author stated that he had instituted experiments with a view 

 to ascertain if a soluble salt of the alkalis could be procured, which 

 might be used as a substitute for sulphate of quinine when dear. 

 He stated, as the result of his trials, that the produce did not 

 amount to more than one and a-half of sulphate per cent, from the 

 bark, but he still calculated that if the bark could be got at a mo- 

 derate price, the salt of the alkalis might be prepared at a cost in- 

 ferior to that of sulphate of quinine. Dr Maclagan stated that the 

 bark appeared to be better suited for the purposes of manufacture 

 than tlie seeds. The author mentioned that sulphate prepared 

 under his directions had been sent out to Demerara, and had been 

 tried there with marked success in intermittent fever by Dr Watt ; 

 he had likewise used it with success in a few cases of ague in Edin- 

 burgh, and also in periodic headache, so that he had no doubt of 

 its possessing considerable power as an antiperiodic remedy. Lastly, 

 he mentioned that a secret preparation sold under the name of 

 " Warburg's Fever Drops," reputed a good antiperiodic, appeared 

 to him to be a tincture of bebeeru seeds. 



