f34 



ffSS TISOPICAL A6RICULTt7RISt, 



AY 3, iBBy, 



Consequently, instead of making progress, we have 

 retrograded, for the actual commercial quinine sulphate 

 contains generally more cinchonidine than that manu- 

 factured by Pelletier. The cause of this fact is that 

 calisaya bark (Quinquina jaune) was orginally exclusively 

 used for the manufacture of quinine sulphate till 

 about 1849, as the first barks from New Grena;la 

 were introduced into Europe in 1848 by Auguste 

 Delondre, one of the partners of the firm, Pelletier, 

 Delondre et Levaillant. Many of these barks con- 

 tained, besides quinine, appreciable quantities of cin- 

 chonidine, the consequence of which was that the 

 quinine sulphate manufactured from these barks con- 

 tained more cinchonidine than that formerly prepared 

 from caliysaya bark. Thia amount of cinchonidine in 

 French quinine sulphate was the cause that ray lamented 

 friend. Dr. C. Zimmer, the well-known quinine 

 manufacturer, issued in 1851 a circular to his custom- 

 ers to warn them against this qiiipine sulphate, 

 which he supposed to have been mixed with cinchonidine 

 sulphate. This, however, was not so, for the presence 

 of such a large quantity of cinchonidine was only 

 the consequenee of the use of barks containing much 

 cinchonidine besides quinine, Zimmer's circular con- 

 tains the following sentence : — 



"We know still little about the therapeutic action 

 of this alkaloid (viz. cinchonidine), but whatever re- 

 sults the impending experiments may afiford, such 

 voluntary substitution is under all circumstances un- 

 accountable, and makes honest competition almost 

 impossible." 



I conclude by expressing the hope that these lines 

 may have convinced the readers of this journal that I 

 never made myself guilty of the assertion attributed to 

 \ me by Dr. Paul. It is, however, true that in the spring 

 of 1883, I communicated orally to the Society de Pharma- 

 cie in Paris that Pelletier never knew " chemically pure " 

 quinine, because the small specimen of "quinine pure " 

 with which he presented me in 1836 contained a " trace" 

 of cinchonidine which I found out in 1856 by the 

 use of the polariscope. But every one will agree with 

 me that a " trace" is quite different from "a large 

 amount."— The Hague, February 16.— Chemist and 

 Lrvc/ffist. 



THE LAWS OF NATURE IN RELATION 

 TO HEALTH. 



The abote was the title of a very interesting address 

 delivered at the annual meeting of the Hertford- 

 shire Natural History Society, at Watford, on Tuesday 

 last, the loth instant, by the President, Professor 

 Attfield, Ph.D., F.R.S., &c. Subjoined are extracts 

 from the address. — 



The Fluids We Drink.— After showing the necessity 

 of water taken in one form or another, Professor 

 Attfield said : — 



From the standpoint of nature, some little interest — 

 alid from the standpoint of man, a great deal of in- 

 terest — attaches to the use of stimulants in the fluids 

 we drink ; for it would seem to be not more instinct- 

 ive to man to cook his food than to discover in 

 nature, or by more or less of art to manufacture, 

 substances which are almost purely stimulating prin- 

 ciples. The instinct of man, in his uncultured and 

 ■Bucirilised state, and in widely separated countries, 

 has led him to discover just those four or five plants, 

 which even now, so far as we know, are the only 

 plants that, like the tea-plant, contain one and the 

 same stimulant. Nearly everywhere, also, man's needs 

 seem to have led him to the process— a perfect natural 

 process, by the way ', an accompaniment of the growth 

 of the yeast-plant— by which sugar is converted into 

 the stimulant termed alcohol. What is the use of 

 such stimulants? Taken in excess they are poisons 

 Jnore or less insidious and harmful. The tkeine of 

 iea, coffee, mate, and guarana is least liable to be 

 taken in excess, and is least harmful. Alcohol is 

 most likely to be taken in excess, and is, therefore, 

 most harmful; on in the epigrammatic words attri- 

 buted to the Scythian prince Anarcharsis, " The first 

 draught serveth for health ; the second for pleasure ; 



^be third for «hame; and the fourth for maduese/' 



If mankind, especially in civilised countries, would 

 consent to live at a slower rate, the second draught would 

 be unnecessary, and probably even the first. But man- 

 kiud cannot now thus live, apparently. 



Man's life was spacious in the early world : 

 It paused, like some slow ship with sail unfurled 

 Waiting in seas by scarce a wavelet curled. 

 Now, with civilisation has come the stimulation of 

 alcohol or theine. The first draught and the second 

 are taken by most of the youth and nearly all of 

 the adult of both sexes, either as theine or alcohol ; 

 while, as alcohol, the third and the fourth are taken 

 by sadly too many. Children do not need, aud, in- 

 deed, rarely take, either alcohol or theine, nor, for 

 that matter either pepper or mustard with their food. 

 These things are mere stimulants. They are not used 

 in the early life of the individual, they were not used 

 in the early life of the race. But swallowed in 

 proper and moderate quantities, at proper times, in these 

 days of civilisation, what office do stimulants fulfil 

 in the system? It would seem, as stated elsewhere 

 by the writer, that they do the important work of 

 aiding the system, whenever necessary, to digest and 

 to store up food, aud to utilise its existing stores of 

 fat and of flesh. In other words, the purpose of 

 stinnulants is, apparently, to stimulate the system the 

 better to live upon itself, and the better to replenish 

 its store of life-sustaining, work-performing flesh and 

 blood. The imprisoned miner, having no food ordi- 

 narily so called, but having stores on his own frame, 

 is able to exist for many daj'S, if only, by a period- 

 ical sip of brandy, he can stimulate his organs to 

 utilise those stores. The Indian performs a journey 

 of two or three days on foot without any so-called 

 food; but he really lives and works on the flesh 

 stored in his frame, and lives satisfactorily if only he 

 can chew his coca leaves, and so obtain the stimulus 

 that shall induce his flesh to yield so much extra force. 

 The invalid, unable to take solid food, can generally take 

 stimulating beef-tea, and thus stimulate his own flesh to 

 maintain his life until he again is able to take true 

 nourishment. These are extreme cases of what ap- 

 pears to be the ordinary action of stimulants when 

 taken in proper quantities. — Chemist and Druggist. 



THE MOOR CULTURE EXHIBITION. 



The exhibition, instituted by the Society for the 

 Promotion of Moorland Culture, was opened and closed 

 in Berlin last week. The object of the exhibition — 

 the first of its kind — was to bring before the public 

 the methods of processes by which ir. is intended to 

 attempt to bring our moorland into a state of culti* 

 vation, together with the various implements, 

 machinery &c. by which these methods and processes 

 are to find application. When it is considered that 

 there are 25,000 square kilometers of such land in 

 Germany, the greater part of which is utterly 

 worthless, it will readily be seen that any means 

 whereby such unproductive land may be brought 

 under cultivation (and made to yield such field and 

 garden products as the best of our land which has 

 been under cultivation from time immemorial) would 

 prove of immense advantage both to individuals and 

 the country and State generally. To say nothing of 

 the extra work which would be afforded to thousands 

 of willing hands, the fact of the acquisition to the 

 State of an immense tract of land equal in size to 

 the province of Saxony is one alone of immense im« 

 portancc, for it certainly might be looked at in the 

 light of an entirely new acquisition. To attempt 

 to give a detailed report of this most unique exhi- 

 bition iu the space allotted us would be an impossible 

 task, and we must content ourselves in the prosent 

 article by bringing under the notice of our reader.'! 

 a few of the most important points that came under 

 our notice while paying a too brief visit to the Ert- 

 hibition. The first group, and perhaps the most 

 interesting, which attracts the visitor's attention ia 

 that contaitnng both deep-ground and surface speci- 

 mens of the moorland in every part of the country, 

 tegether with the plants or peculiar products which 



are found (hereou, Utxs, too, we £iad the valudbl 



