October r, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



^93 



One of the specimens lent by Professor Maximowicz 

 had a root which tapered suddenly at the apex, and in 

 that particular it seemed to ditl'oi' from the ordinary aconite 

 of commerce, which tapered gradually down to a poiut. 

 One of the specimens of Japanese aconite sent by Pro- 

 fessor Maximowicz had a root nearly approaching to that 

 of A. Napellus, but the foliage was very different. It 

 would be seen, from the specimens on the table, that 

 A. Fischeri was a very polymorphic plant and one^ very 

 variable in character. There were also some specimens 

 of the valerians which grew in Japan, which he had 

 borrowed from Professor Maximowicz, being desu-ous of 

 ascertaining what species yielded the Japanese valerian 

 root exhibited at a former meeting. None of these borrowed 

 specimens, however, seemed to have roots identical in 

 character with the Kesso or Japanese drug, and therefore 

 he presumed that the latter was obtained from a different 

 plant. There were two specimens of aconite root presented 

 by Mr. Squire, one being from Acotiitum panictdatuin^ aud 

 the other from Aconitiim Napdlus. They approximated 

 very closely in appearance and general character. It was 

 not surprising that growers were puzzled in distinguishing 

 the different varieties which were met with in gardens 

 or obtained from the florist. The best practical test for 

 distinguishing these two species would appear to be in 

 the absence of tingling in the ta.ste. Mr. .Squire had also 

 sent a root of biennial henbane, which, he maintained, 

 could be grown as an article of commerce. The present 

 specimen was grown from seed sown in March, the root 

 being dug up in the March of the following year. There 

 were also some specimens of bark from Jamaica, from 

 Mr. D. Morris, Director of the Botanical Gardens of Jamaica, 

 who kindly sent specimens of drugs which came under 

 his notice. One of the samples of bark was a very bitter 

 one. The Director had written, saying — 



" I send you a few scraps of a bark sent me the other 

 day from Hayti as a 'cinchona.' It has a remarkably warm 

 sweetish bitter taste, and I am inclined to think it might 

 be useful as a tonic or stomachic. Unfortunately I could 

 get no account of its source beyond being ' the bark of 

 a tree common in Hayti.' If some friend of yours would 

 care to analyse it, the result might be interesting. I 

 am endeavouring to get further particulars so as, if possible, 

 to identify the tree from which it is obtained, but I 

 cannot promise much in this way as Hayti is a most 

 difficult place to get anything from." 



He (Mr. Holmes) had compared this bark with specimens 

 already in the Museum, and it seemed to be exactly iden- 

 tical with an E.costenana bark, which was used iu Hayti 

 and several other islands of the AVest Indies as a bitter 

 tonic. Some specimens had been presented to the Museum 

 by Mr. K. G. Schweitzer, one of these being a very pretty 

 one of the alpha resin of copaiba, which had been de- 

 scribed by Berzelius. He (Mr Holmes) believed that it was 

 obtained by digesting the resin in ammonia, and allowing 

 the ammonia to evaporate. Another specimen presented 

 by him was columbiu, the bitter principle of calumba root. 

 The Museum was by no means rich in specimens of t'ne 

 active principles of plants which were discovered in the 

 early part of the century. This one, which was discovered 

 by Wittstock in 1830, was one of the few which had been 

 presented to the Museum. Probably there were in private 

 laboratories many interesting objects of that kind, and 

 these would be gladly received by the Society for the 

 purpose of illustrating the active principles of various 

 drugs. Mr. T. Christy had presented an article which was 

 very rarely seen in this country, namely, the pod of the 

 tonka bean. The seeds in the pod were sufficiently fresh 

 to grow. Another specimen from the same donor was 

 pure papayotin, the active principle of the papaw, which 

 had been prepared in Jamaica. This substance was a 

 very interesting one, as it had lately been shown that 

 pepsine, like this substance, formed an insoluble compound 

 with fibrine which underwent hydration. Hence the re- 

 semblance between papayotin and pepsine was much greater 

 than had been imagined. , 



The President remarked that anything in connection 

 with medicinal plants contributed by Mr. Squire was entitled 

 to great consideration. Mr. Squire grew several, and he 

 was exceedingly careful and very observant respecting them. 

 Mr. Squire had mentioned to him (the President) that he 

 intended sending to the Museum these two roots, Aconitum 

 paniciUatum and Aconitum NttpeUiis, which had been grown 



on his own grounds. . He had supplied him (the President) 

 with a root of each, which had been in spirit for some 

 time, and also gave him a sketchy drawing of each. As 

 Mr. Holmes had said, from the drawing it would be ex- 

 tremely difficult to distinguish for practical purposes 

 between the two varieties. But in making sections of 

 the two roots he (the President) had found a very great 

 difference between the two, so that there was not much 

 difficulty iu determining which was "paniculatum " and 

 which was " napellus." Curiously the section of the 

 " paniculatum " closely corresponded to a section of German 

 aconite. It seemed hkely, therefore, that roots of Aconitum 

 paniculatum were very often mixed with the roots of Aconitum 

 JViipdtus imported into this country from Ciermany. He 

 thought that the German aconite sent here generally came 

 from the neighbom-hood of Prague iu Bohemia. He 

 believed that it was gathered by men who went out into 

 the range of mountains running from Bohemia to Salzburg, 

 and gathered medicinal roots of several kinds, and then 

 took the roots in a bag and sold them to pharmacists, 

 leaving the purchasers to distinguish which was gentian 

 and which was aconite. Bearing in mind that in the roots 

 of Aconitum paniculatum there was an absence of the 

 tingling property, it was of some importance to determine 

 accurately whether a large proportion of this root came 

 over mixed with the German roots of professedly Aconit- 

 um Xapdlui. The two or three sections which he had 

 made of one part of the root of each of these two varieties 

 scarcely enabled him to express a positive opinion with 

 regard to the character" of the sections being uniform 

 throughout the root. It was very possible that the section 

 might differ in different parts of the root. It would be 

 necessary to take sections from different parts of the 

 roots and from many roots to be able to determine whether 

 there was any difference of section which could be rehed 

 upon between Aconitum paniculatum and Aconitujn Napellus. 

 He might remark with regard to the specimens from Mr. 

 Maximowicz, that he met him in St. Petersburg two years 

 ago, and sketched on a paper a Japan aconite root of 

 which he had been able to make sections. Mr. Maximowicz 

 immediately said, " That is Aconitum Fischeri." He seemed 

 to be very well acquainted with the aconites as grown 

 in Japan. But the history of the aconite roots and the 

 varieties imported seemed to be involved in mystery. 



Mr. Postans mentioned a circumstance which occurred 

 recently in connection with hyoscyamus. He had always 

 used the leaves of the biennial variety of Hi/oscyamus 

 niijei; but he ordered a fresh supply in, and after a while 

 some of it was made into tincture. This was a nice-looking 

 preparation, although a much brighter green colour than 

 the B.P. ; when mixed with water it presented a different 

 appearance from that of the biennial plant. He was told 

 that a considerable quantity of annual henbane was in 

 the market, and that it was sold largely in some districts 

 for the preparation of tincture of hyoscyamus, principally 

 because of its cheapness. The British Phai-macopceia re- 

 cognized only the biennial plant, and the annual henbane 

 of which he had spoken was evidently a different variety 

 of the same species; it would seem important, therefore, 

 that pharmacists shoidd know whether comparative ex- 

 periments had been made as to ■ the usefulness of the 

 two sorts. 



Mr. Cleaver said that it had been several times stated 

 that the annual and the biennial henbane varied very 

 little with regard to the percentage of hyoscyamine to 

 be obtained from them ; but there was a much more powerful 

 smell from the biennial than from the annual ; and biennial 

 precipitated with water. This would tend to show that 

 there w;is something besides hyoscyamine in the biennial 

 which gave the remedial properties to the tincture of 

 that variety. As to the specimen of root of henbane on 

 the table, it certainly seemed remarkable that they had 

 never had any use of it iu pharmacy. Considering the 

 comparatively large development of root, it would be useful 

 if something could be done with it. He should like to 

 know whether a chemical examination of it had been 

 made. With regard to the aconite specimens, it was 

 well known that the Japanese aconite contained a large 

 quantity of alkaloid. There appeared to be something 

 very peculiar in the climate of Jap ;n, for the Japanese 

 valerian root was very much more powerful than the 

 English, as regarded the volatile r.H in it. And in the 

 case of peppermint, the quantity of oil of peppermint 



