THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 25 



CHEAP QUININE FOR BENGAL. 



Referring to his former report on the encouragement extended by 

 the British Indian Government to the cultivation of the cinchona tree 

 and the production of quinine in India, Consul-General W. H. Michael 

 writes from Calcutta : 



The Government of Bengal has taken steps recently to extend the 

 cultivation of cinchona and the manufacture of quinine at Sonada. 

 The new plantation opened four years ago is now beginning to send 

 good quantities of bark to the factory, and a further extension is now 

 under consideration, which will make it unquestionably the finest cin- 

 chona estate in the world. The factory is at present being enlarged 

 and equipped with additional machinery, so that ere long the output 

 of quinine will be considerably increased, and fresh outlets for its dis- 

 tribution will be arranged for, thus placing packets of this precious 

 medicine within easy reach of the poorest farmer of Bengal, the price 

 of the packets being fixed at i pice each, which is one-half of a cent. 



RED CROSS NOTES. 



Ipecac. 



When applied to the skin, ipecac irritates; blood is forced into the 

 cutaneous capillary; the vesicle glands secrete faster than they excrete 

 and pus appears. When continued, the irritation exhausts the ganglia, 

 the impairment of vital energy results in the death of the tissues, and 

 pus appears in the vesicle. 



Under a law in New Zealand drug clerks are allowed to work only 

 52 hours a week. 



In France the bill of a physician or druggist cannot be collected if 

 more than two years old. 



Tuberculosis patients who are blonde should sojourn in the North. 

 Onlv brunette invalids do well in the South. 



LEGIBLE PRESCRIPTIONS. 



A plea for more legible prescriptions should meet with a universal 

 response. Many druggists rely on their familiarity with the respective 

 physicians handwriting, or guess work as to the possible combination 

 in compounding a prescription. An adoption of the rescript recently 

 issued bv the Austrian Minister, ordering that no pharmacist shall 

 deliver medicines unless prescriptions are legibly written, would be 

 beneficial all around. 



