259 



animals. The amount of game killed is less easily determined than of 

 cattle, but, judging from the evidence obtained, wolves kill far less game 

 in the western United States than either coyotes or mountain lions. 



As protective measures against the depredations of wolves fences arc 

 recommended. Bounties, even when high, have proved ineffective m 

 keeping down the pest and the more intelligent ranchmen question whether 

 the system pays. 



The methods usually employed for the destruction of wolves are hunt- 

 ing with rifle or with dogs and horses, capturing the young in the dens, 

 trapping, and poisoning, a description of each of which expedients is given. 

 Most of the wolves trapped are less than a year old, generally spring pups 

 caught the following fall or winter. After a wolf has reached his third year 

 and run the gauntlet of traps, poisons, guns, and dogs, its chances of dying 

 of old age are excellent. Around the dens the old wolves are especially 

 wary, and so suspicious of both traps and poison that attempts to catch or 

 poison them are futile. Scents and baits make them only the more sus- 

 picious. 



THE NEW ANT I -OPIUM REMEDY. 



Mr. L. Wray, Director of ^vfuseums of the Federated Malay States, has 

 published in the Journal of ihc Ecdcratcd Malay States Museums an 

 account of the new anti-opiinn remedy and of the results obtained from its 

 use in Selangor. As the subject has aroused considerable interest both m 

 this country and on the Continent, a brief abstract of his article may prove 

 of interest. 



The discovery of the property of the plant is told by two of the men in 

 charge of the factory of the Selangor Anti-Opium Society in Kuala Lum- 

 pur. A party of Chinese wood-cutters, working in the jungle near Serem- 

 ban, ran out of tea, and to supply its place took the leaves of a jungle 

 climber, dried them, and used them as tea in the ordinary way. But the 

 beverage made the men ill with bowel complaint. The leaves were then 

 roasted, and a fair substitute for tea w-as obtained, which had.no ill effects. 

 Then, for some obscure reason, some opium dross, consisting of the refuse 

 opiuni after being smoked, was mixed with it, and the men continued 

 drinking the mixture for a week or more in place of tea. After this time 

 it was found that all desire for opium-smoking had been lost. Friends of 

 the men made known the discovery, and so the news w^as spread, and other 

 men were induced to try the remedy. Mr. Wray suggests that the plant 

 may act as an astringent, preventing the distressing intestinal troubles 

 which usually supervene on a stoppage of the customary supply of opium, 

 and render it difficult to leave off its use. The mode of preparing the 

 remedy is as follows : About 8 oz. to lo^ oz. of the roasted leaves are 

 boiled for about three hours in about four gallons of water. The liquid is 

 then strained through a white cloth and poured into barrels, and supplied 

 direct from the barrels to the bottles brousfht by the patients; but, as the 

 infusion contains no preservative, it is readily subject to fermentation, and 

 often has to be thrown away and a fresh supply obtained. 



The decoction is prescribed thus : Whatever the amount of opium a man 

 habitually smokes, that amount is to be mixed with the infusion.^ It may be 

 mentioned here that the average opium smoker takes from two to three 

 chi (116 2-3gr. to I75gr.) of chandu per diem. This quantity is often ex- 

 ceeded, and in one case 1^2 tahil (875gr.) is stated to be the daily allow- 

 ance of a particular smoker. Chandu, which is the opium as prepared by 

 the Chinese for the use of smokers, is less potent than the official extract of 

 opium of the British Pharmacopoeia. In the act of smoking a considerable 

 quantity of the alkaloids contained in the chandu is certainly destroyed. 

 and only a mere fraction is absorbed into the system of the smoker. To 

 proceed, if, for instance, a man has been in the habit of smoking two chi 



