57^ 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, i88 



MANILA NEWS. 



(Translated for the Straits Times.) 

 The devising of a machine for preparing Manila 

 hemp, which has fruitlessly been ext^rcising the wits 

 of successive jovertors, has apparenHy been solved 

 by D )n Abelardo Guesta, The invention since it was 

 first hit upon, has been improved upon materially, 

 and is based on a principle which only needs to be 

 fully applied to command success. To admit of the 

 Phiiippines progressing satisfactorily, the present method 

 of preparing hemp must he discontinued within a few 

 years. It is destructive to the article under notic*, 

 and turns out an unsightly product. In these dayi 

 of machinery to economise labour, it is certainly high 

 time to improve the prep<iration of hemp, which, 

 hitherto, has not shared in the march ot industrial 

 advancement. 



The Comercio quotes from a Cuban newspaper H 

 paragraph announcing that a scientific trial was about 

 to be made there of an apparatus invented hy Senor 

 Aycart, who, so it is said, has solved the tough pro- 

 blem of perpetual motion, which has hitherto defied 

 the ingenuity of many aspirants for inventive fame. 

 It is said the invention took forty years to reach 

 perfection, and can develop power equivalent to that of 

 ten horses. The simpleuess of its constrnction and me- 

 chanism is wonderful &c., &c. The etceteras cannot 

 fail to strike one as evidences of mistrust. The dis- 

 covery of perpetual motion would indeed be a wonder. 

 It would prove to be the most thoroughgoing revo- 

 lution ever carried out. The world would become in that 

 case quite transformed. Businesses now yielding high 

 profits would prove ruinous altogether. Others now 

 unprofitable would turn out to be inexhaustible mines 

 of wealth. Probably, however, this invention will go 

 the way of all previous attempts to solve this knotty 

 problem. 



COMMERICAL SULPHATE OF QUININE. 



It a]^pear.s to be the fate of pharmacist.*^ that th^y 

 should occasionally be startled into wakefulness regard- 

 ing the purity of the drugs they handle. Fortunately 

 the rude a-vakening seldom proceeds from without, it 

 generally beiug the case that dwellers within the r.\mp 

 cause the commotion. Quite recently we have had a 

 ca^e in point in reference to the quality of European 

 sulphate of quinine. Dr. de Vrij, the veteran quino- 

 logist, in a paper published in this Jour.nal (May 1, 

 page 378), stated that the quinine sulphate prepared 

 by English. Dutch, F^eQch. and Germin manufacturers 

 contained cinchonidi le sulphate varying in extent from 

 4-7-'{ to 12-448 per cent. In this respect English quinine 

 was placed in a bad position undoubtedly, but in 

 respect of the feet that onr hnme-msde (juinine contains 

 much less water than that which comes from the 

 Continent, its actual quinine content is greater than 

 that of any other production. So far we take Dr. de 

 Vrij's figures as th^y pre given, for it is ; ot our object 

 in this note eithpr to contradict or to defend them. A 

 few days after the publication of the paper in question, 

 Dr. de Yrij ^rave a ritumc of it before the Paris 

 Pharmaceutical Society (The Chemist and Druggist, 

 May 8, p. 404), and, as a result thereof, the Society at 

 a s ibseqiieut meeting appoinied a committee lo ( xpcri- 

 ment with the Codex test, which was impugned, and to 

 check as far as po.ssible Dr. de Vrij's alarming state- 

 aif-nts. The French Codex text is a modification of 

 Kerner's test, a modificatiou in su far as the exact 

 temperature at which the test is to be performed has 

 been unintentionally omitted. This test of Kerner's 

 ii >tn ol-i one, comparatively, and has beeu adopteii in 

 the Ge-man as well as in the French Pharmacpoeia, and 

 with, ilight modifications in the United States Ph rma- 

 copoeia. Its application in simple; 2 gramwes of the qui- 

 nine under (xamination are agitated and macerated in 20 

 CO. of distilled water at 15° 0. for balf-an-hour ; 5 c.c. 

 of the solution are then filtered off and cautiously 

 mixed with 7. c.c. of 10 per cent solution of ammonia, 

 wnnn a clear solution should be obtained. The 

 j.rinciple of the test i« also simple ; fir.stlv, the 

 ► ulphate of quinine alone givt 8 a precipitate soluble in 



excess of ammonia, or, more correctly speaking, in the 

 ammonia and ammonium sulphate which is formed, 

 and no other salt of quinine responds to the test. 

 St condly, cinchouidine sulphate — the body which the 

 test is mainly designed to detect — is about six times 

 more soluble in plain water than is quinine sulphate, 

 consequently a small proportion is made apparent, and 

 its hydrate, or ammonia precipitate, is quite insoluble 

 in excess of the re-agent ; therefore by suitable means 

 the insoluble alkaloid may be separated, weighed, and 

 the percentage of cinehonidioe so determined approxi- 

 mately. The French committee, in addition to working 

 with this test, repeated tli*e polarisoopic tCbt used by 

 Dr. de Vrij, with th.e result, as stated in our last 

 wO'-k's issue, that they reported through their convener, 

 M. Jungdfisch, that commercial quiuine sulphate con- 

 taius 8, 10, 12, aud sometimes as much as 16 per 

 cent of sulphate of ciuchonidine. They also corioborate 

 Dr. de Vrij in his stateint-nt t'lat the light or bulky 

 quinines contain most cinchonidine. 



Theae facts are by no means new, and have been 

 pointed out lepeatedly by quiiiologists. Our own 

 Pharmacopoeia permits 5 per cent of impurity io sul- 

 phate of quuiine, aud gives an excelleut test whereby 

 that, or less or largei, amount may be detected aud 

 separated. Absolute purity, thou.i^h obtainable, is not 

 advisable or practicable, owing to the cost of producing 

 a salt of the kind. 



In the the course of his statement before the Paris 

 Society, Dr. de Vrij mentioned another simple test, 

 which is due to him, aud which may be readily applied 

 according to Mr. Divid Howard's modification. It is 

 as follows : —Dissolve 10 parts of quinine sulphate in 9 

 parts of acid, sulph. dil. B.P., and 15 parts of water. 

 Allow the acid and sulphate of quinine to crystalise 

 and drain ofi' the mother liquor; wash the crystals 

 with a little water, and then shake the liquor with 

 ether and ammonia. It is necessary to keep in mind 

 when a(jplying these tests that cinchonidine will be 

 found; it is only as to its amount that a question 

 arises, and on this pjint we have sufficient faith in our 

 mauufacturers to feel that retailers will be sati.sfied. 

 — Ch'inisi and Druggist. 



SOME FACTS ABOUT TODDY. 



The correspondent who has been supplying us with 

 accounts of the peculiar temperance movement in this 

 Presidency sends the follovviug facts about toddy from 

 Gujerat : — 



Toddy comes from nearly every kind of palm tree, 

 and is simply the extracted juice or sap. In these 

 districts it is chiefly derived from the coconut, date, 

 and brab palms. The coconut is supposed to yield 

 the best., but is usually tapped only every second 

 year. The fruit and flower stalk is first well bruisf-d 

 and then cut, and the toddy exudes freely. The 

 same process is carried on with respect to the brab 

 tree also. As to the dat« tree, an incision is deeply- 

 cut into the trunk of the tree close into the tuft 

 of leaves at the top, from whence the juice flows. 

 Fastened to the top are small earthen chattiea or 

 jars to hold the liquid. These are usually emptied 

 morning aud evening. The usual yield from a brab 

 tree is from sixty to one hundred and twenty gallons. 

 It seems almost incredible tliat such a large amount 

 of liquid should flow through the trunk of one of 

 these trees, and that after all this has been taken 

 away, the tree should seem to thrive as well as if it 

 had not been toucheil. The fruit of the brab tree is 

 a glutinous substance of little or no value. The date 

 tree in this country yields no marketable fruit. The 

 coconut is very valuable, even if it yields no toddy, 

 on account of the fruit . 



The men who collect the toddy are called Bund- 

 aries. The same man however, will not usually tap, 

 or collect from different kinds of tree.s. Besides this, 

 each caste, if they may be called castes, has a different 

 manner of climbing the tree. The coconut bundarie, 

 for instance, has notches cut in the tree from bottom 

 to top, to assist him in his ascent. With a strap 

 jiround his body and the tree he fearlessly walks up 

 the most slender jind lofty, apparently as easily A9 



