6 5 THE JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 



as possible. The fibre is unique for its large percentage (19.5 per cent.) of 

 furfural. This removes it, among fibres, the very farthest from cotton. Its 

 investigation has led to the result of a thorough comparative study of the 

 chemical composition of fibres at the Imperial Institute. R. 



Medicinal Plants. — The Museum Department of the Pharmaceutical 

 Society of Great Britain has published a catalogue of its herbarium of me- 

 dicinal plants, compiled by the Curator, Mr. E. M. Holmes. Not only is a 

 list of the species given, but the composition and source of the different 

 specimens are noted. The collection appears to be decidedly poor in repre- 

 sentatives of North American medicinal plants. 



Sanicula. — The genus Sanicula, which has always been of more or less 

 medicinal interest through the extensive use in domestic practice, and to a 

 less extent in scientific practice*, of several of its species; has been enriched 

 by the addition of two species, described by Mr. Eugene P. Bicknell in the 

 Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, December, 1897, page 577. The 

 species are S. Smallii and S. Floridana, both growing in the southeastern 

 United States. 



A Research Upon Sarsaparilla. — In the Medical Chronicle for May, 

 L897, Leech gives a summary of the results obtained by Schulz in the Phar- 

 macological institute of Dorpat by a study of Ibis drug. These researches 

 by Schulz on the composition of sarsaparilla were made prior to 1892, under 

 the direction of Prof . Kobert, who lias already set forth the general results 

 obtained in tlie Deutsche Medicinische Wochenschrift of June 30, 1892. In 

 the present paper the full details of lie' research are given, together with an 

 account of the history and botany of sarsaparilla. 



Opinions as to the value of this drug as a therapeutic agent have always 

 differed widely. Even when it was most largely v.^i'd (here wife many who, 

 Mr, the ground of experience, denied its potency, and now that it is rele- 

 gated for the most part to popular or domestic medicine, there are still 

 some who hold, also on the ground of experience, that it has a curative 

 influence in certain forms of disease. It is manifest that if sarsaparilla 

 has such an influence, it must depend on some active substance the root 

 contains, and Schulz"s investigations have been made for the purpose of 

 obtaining further information as to the nature of the active principle or 

 principles. 



As early a.- Is - .' I. Paflota, of Naples, separated from sarsaparilla a sub- 

 stance, parillin, which was subsequently obtained in a pure stale by Fliicki- 

 ger, who gave as its formula C 40 H, 18 or O ie H S(; 18 . 'Ibis substance has 

 also been called by some smilacin. Otten, in 1876, separated another suit- 

 stance, which Merck has since prepared commercially, viz., sarsaparilla- 

 saponin. To this substance the names of smilacin and sarsasmilacin have 



