f EE. I, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRrCULTTJPTST. 



Sty 



by merely trusting to the iuformation of native doctors. 

 They were no tools, an i ha i found out b_v long expfiri- 

 ence and wonderful skill a great deal more than we 

 gave them credit for, but by taking their experience, 

 and bringing modern science to bear upv)u it, the 

 best results would be obtained, ai'd it would thus 

 become possible to dispense with some of the elegaat 

 forms of pharmacy of which they had heard. The 

 question of new drugs waut«^d a great deal of stuiiy, 

 and a great deal of hard work, but like all other 

 things you never got any good results without hard 

 work, and you never did hard work without some 

 results. 



Mr. Ohaeles Ohristy said, that recently some remark- 

 able specimens of gums had been received from India, 

 but up to the present time there as no gum which had 

 come under his notice which would supersede that frum 

 the Soudan, Known in Commerce under the name of 

 "Tuikey sorts." This pold, before the breaking out of 

 the Soudan war, with difficulty at 35s. to 40^'. a hundred- 

 weight, but at the present moment it was worth £10 

 to £11. What was wanted was some gum to replace 

 it, audit seemed a very strange thing that they had not 

 yet been able to find one. What was wanted was a sweet 

 gum, which could be used medicinally as a mucilage. 

 The gums hitherto brought forward were more or Jess 

 of a bitter nature, containing a large amount of 

 tannin, and the consequence wis when used for dyeing 

 purposes, if the dye coutaiued any mixture of iron it 

 turned black. He hoped the gentlemen from thedifferent 

 colonies would bear this in mmd. They were getting 

 gums from Australia, but none of them that 

 he knew of were of the sweet character which could 

 be used in pharmacy. The nearest thing to it was the 

 produce of Senegal. The vanillas from Seychelles were 

 much finer than were generally seen in commerce. 

 Mr. Stockman said he had been carrying on some 

 investigation on the Borneo camphor which Jlr. Holmes 

 kindly sent him two or three months ago, but he could 

 only speak at present in a very general way of its action, 

 chiefly in comparing it with ordinary laurel camphor. 

 There was no doubt that the earliest camphor brougt to 

 this country was Borneo camphor, and the earliest ex- 

 periments about one hundred and fifty years ago were 

 probably carried out with this substance, but they had 

 got 80 mixed up that at the present time it was quire 

 impossible to say which kind was used. Lately, owing 

 to the difficulty of getting Borneo camphor, some experi- 

 ments which were made in Germany were made with an 

 artificially prepared substance, as it only required two 

 atoms of hydrogen to bo a Idcd to ordinary camphor 

 to make Borneo camphor. But these experiments were 

 few in number and incomplete, and he believed the 

 investigation he was now CMrrying on was the first 

 which had been made with Borneo camphor. Physio- 

 logists visually began with frogs, and with them the 

 action was very much the same as that of common 

 camphor. 



Mr. Kemp (Bombay) said he had been much in- 

 terested by the remarks on Indian drugs, but the 

 science of modern therapeutics he really believed 

 was in a very early stage, although the materia 

 . medica of India vvas very ancient; many articles had 

 dropped out of U'^e, and might be taken up with 

 great profit for modern investigation. It was said 

 that sandal-woo I oil as imported from India was much 

 adulterated. He was not aware that sandal-wood oil 

 was exported from India in any quantity, but it was 

 ce) tiinly produced in considerable purity, the only 

 adulterant being moisture. It could be obtained in 

 considerable quantities snd good quality, if care were 

 taken in selecting specimens. It was principally di - 

 tilled in the Mysore territory. In Australia it was 

 preferred in many cases, whether from its superior 

 cheapness or from its quality he could not say. It 

 was not exported in the cjudc state in which it canie 

 into the market, but was either re-(li-tili<d o- care- 

 fully filtered. \Vith regard to the Cnnnabis mdica 

 hd had no kuowle:ige, buo when in India he had had 

 repeatei! applications from persons in this country 

 for it, as he understood to apply the Cooly mirkets 

 of the West Indies, and other colonies where it was 

 used ia largQ quantities, and he understood that was 



ts destination. The kind in demand v.t'j the rouni 

 top, generally imported iu bundles jf 1 itj. each, wh ch 

 was exported from Calcutta and possioly through 

 Bombay from B.-i>gal. The Bombay c<naabi8. Dr. 

 Watt h&i said, was of the flat kind, which abounded 

 in stalks and probably that was one reason for its 

 inferiority. Mr. Holmes had also mentioned oil from 

 melon seeds, and he might remark that although 

 melon seeds were obtainable only in small quantities 

 in India, they yielded about 25 per cent of oil 

 and were very good for ' feeding purpos-es. The 

 Jatropha Curcas was used to a considerable extent in 

 India, and he should like to see it come mjre into the 

 maiket. Another drug not mentioned was the Ipomea 

 ccerulea, one of the cunvolvu.us family, the seeds 

 produced a resin resembling that of the jalap, if not 

 identical with it, an i it yielded about four or five per 

 cent. He imagined it would be a profitable source 

 of jalapiu. Ho hoped the scheme of the Institute 

 would be taken up and thoroughly carried out, for 

 really, London being the central market of the world 

 for drugs, there was a better opportunity for studying 

 the Indian materia- medica here, both in a theoretical 

 and practical form than there was to any ordinary 

 person in India, and this would be still more the 

 case if the Institute were established. The difficulty 

 in India was to communicate with the deposi- 

 taries of the native medicines owing to the multifarious 

 languages they spoke, and the different accounts they 

 gave of the different drugs, and the way in which they 

 locked up their medical knowledge in their own 

 breasts. Dr. Dymock, in his recent work, had done 

 a great deal to overcome these difficulties, and his 

 was one of the most accurate and interesting books 

 published on the subject. He had often heard him 

 refer to the great assistance he had derived at various 

 times from Mr. Holmes. 



Mr. Thomas Christy said it was very interesting to 

 see these valuable exhibits, but after all Mr. Howard had 

 really touched the vital point: — How were they to be 

 turned to account ? On an occasion like the present he 

 might be allowed to say that although the young men 

 coming on might be able to work at these things, the 

 next thing was to get them used. 



Mr. Leopold Field said there was only one point 

 which came within his ken as a practical soap and 

 candle maker, and that was the remark made by Mr. 

 Bosisto with regard to the eucalyptus. For the last 

 two years his firm had been trying to get hold of 

 something besides the globulus, but found the Austra- 

 lians unwilling to let them have any, and he did 

 not believe there was one gallon of the dumosa oil 

 to be obtained in the market. 



Mr. BnsisTO said they never sent a pound weight 

 of E. globulus oil into the market. 



Mr. FiKLD said it was labelled so at any rate. 

 Mr. Bosisto said he must emphatically contradict 

 that. He had only one label, and that label, was 

 rigistered. 



Mr. Field said he did not allude to Mr. Bosisto per- 

 sonally at all. The oil they obtained always came 

 to them in iron tins holding about fifty-six pounds, 

 and it was labelled E. globu'us, and sometimes by 

 way of change E. ainygdalitia, for the two things 

 seemed exactly the same. They bad had one 

 sample of E. dumosa, which was vastly superior, and 

 they had tried to get it, again and again, but they 

 had never been able to obtain a similar oil. They 

 had now sent out an extensive order hoping it would 

 induce the di.stillation of this oil. Naturally their 

 only knowledge was derived from those standards 

 which came under their notice, and if they were 

 supplied with the wrong article, how could their 

 knowledge be correct? With regard to the various 

 scents which the eucalyptus and its isomers were 

 Citp.ihle of assuming, tiny weie of the gr. ati st value 

 and iiiierest to the soap maker. The i<jiuoii-.scented 

 II on burk, whicli iie believed was the 'iniudorn, was 

 to him a roost interesting substance, and no tloubt 

 might if worked into soup give the public very great 

 satisfaction, i.iasrauch as the odour appeared to be 

 pleasauter than lemon grass, and not so sickly as 

 that of citronelle. All the odours the various eucalypti 



