igS MENTAL HEALING. 



So when a Christian Scientist assures his patient that as he has^ 

 no body he cannot possibly have any pain in it, this is just the 

 sort of clear and vigorous suggestion which appeals to and stimulates 

 the subconscious mind. 



The statements of Christian Science may be and are philosophi- 

 cally and scientifically ridiculous— but this does not in the least 

 prevent their being admirably adapted for their purpose. 



ERYTHRINA ZEYHERI. — Mr. E. M. Holmes, F.L.S., 

 Curator of the Pharmaceutical Society's Museum, contributes tO' 

 the Pharmaceutical Journal a short account of a chemical examina- 

 tion of Erythrina Zeyheri, Harv., by Mr. E. Langham, of Vrede, 

 O.R.C. The seeds of this plant, which have a scarlet testa, but do 

 not give up their colour to chloroform, are used by Kaffirs for 

 necklaces. The average weight of a seed is 20 grains. The seeds 

 yield 28 per cent, of a bland nutty flavoured fixed oil, and 4 per 

 cent, of a volatile oil (erythrol) which has a pungent odour recalling 

 that of horse-radish. This volatile oil is a powerful irritant ; it 

 is soluble in alcohol and ether, and distils at 60° C. It volatilises 

 freely at 18° C, and belongs apparently to the butyl series of 

 alcohols. Extraction of the seeds by alcohol yields an alkaloid 

 insoluble in ether or benzol, and giving a purple precipitate with 

 Auric chloride. A solution of the alkaloid boiled with ammonia 

 or with caustic potash and Cupric sulphate gives a precipitate 

 of Cupric hydrate only. With nitric acid it gives a bright orange 

 colour changing to red ; with sulphuric acid it gives a dull red, 

 darkening in tint. For this alkaloid Mr. Langham suggests the 

 name Erythrine, but as a neutral substance. Erythrin, is obtained 

 from the lichen Roccella fuciformis, Mr. Holmes proposes Zeyherine 

 as more distinctive. When a solution of the alkaloid is boiled with 

 dilute sulphuric acid for some time, and the resulting solution 

 rendered strongly alkaline with caustic potash, cupric sulphate 

 being afterwards added and the solution warmed, a crimson scarlet 

 precipitate is thrown down. As regards the therapeutical proper- 

 ties of the characteristic constituents of this plant, it is said that 

 the fixed oil is aperient, if freed from the volatile oil : the latter 

 is irritant and useful in liniments. The alkaloid appears to be of 

 service in the treatment of scrofula. The fluid extract of the leaf 

 has been used as a blood-purifier. The small Kaffir tree, Erythrinu 

 Himiei, E. Mey., or um-Sintsana, is also used extensively by the 

 Kaffirs for scrofula (see Andrevv^ Smith's "South African Materia 

 Medica," 3rd ed., p. 90). 



DR. W. A. CALDECOTT. — On the 19th February the degree 

 of Doctor of Science of the University of the Cape of Good Hope 

 was formally conferred upon Mr. W. A. Caldecott, B.A., F.C.S.. 

 M.LM.M., Consulting Metallurgist, of the Consolidated Gold Fields 

 of South Africa, Johannesburg, for his thesis on " The Chemistry 

 of Rand Banket ore treatment." Dr. Caldecott is one of the fore- 

 most authorities on the metallurgy of gold as practised on the 

 Rand, and his own researches, recorded in numerous published 

 scientific papers, have been largely instrumental in advancing the 

 theory of the subject, more particularly with respect to the Cyanide 

 process, the basis of the present position of the Rand gold industry. 



