TVVENTV-FJVE VKAKS OF CHEMIC \L INVESTIGATION. 97 



the obscure and rare poison hyoscin was deservedly the subject of 

 liigh admiration. But many a case is tried in the Eastern Districts 

 Circuit Courts of the Cape Province wherein conviction turns 

 on the presence or absence of poisons zclwlly unknown to EngHsh 

 scientists. Ahnost every year, for many years past, I have pub- 

 licly recomnTiended that steps 'be taken to investigate these un- 

 known poisons, and up to the, present practically all that we 

 know of their chemical nature has 'been brought to light through 

 the medium of the Cape laboratories. T am not unmmdfid of 

 the work that has quite lately been done at the Wellcome Re- 

 search Laboratories, but it is scarcely to the credit of South 

 Africa that it should contentedly leave the active principles of 

 its therapeutically valuable indigenous flora to be exploited bv 

 private institutions in other parts of the world. The more de- 

 sirable course is that enough leisure should be at the disposal of 

 those W'ho have already initiated the local investigations, in order 

 that they may thereby be enabled to carry them to the important 

 issues that undoubtedly await them. That would be true re- 

 search, and if by research we mean something that wnW issue in 

 striking results, it is not impossible that it may possess even 

 that merit. Six years ago, in a paper read by me before the 

 South African Philosophical Society,'* I summarised the work 

 that had been done in this direction in the laboratories under 

 my charge ; and since then further investigations of similalr 

 nature have been set in motion. In no case, however, has there 

 been any opportunity of pushing any one of these investigations 

 to anything like finality, and I shall greatly regret it if, through 

 faulty perspective, those who have directly imparted the primary 

 impulse to several trains of investigation are now debarred the 

 right that priority gives them of continuing their researches. 

 The work that has fceen done in our laboratories clearly demon- 

 strates that there are immense possibilities before the chemical 

 investigation of the active principles contained in South African 

 plants. These are not limited to the aloes and buchus, but in 

 many other genera and species of the country's flora there are 

 alkaloids and glucosides, oils, resins and compounds of the aro- 

 matic series in profusion merely awaiting discovery and practical 

 application — and let me here again say the knowledge we possess 

 on this subject has come to us in the shape of that much-despised 

 " routine " work. None the less it has, as we shall see, greatly 

 assisted us in indicating just what special subjects were open 

 to fuller investigation ; in fact, it has been the only available 

 means towards this end. 



Let me briefly give an indication of what we have found 

 thus far. It is just over ninety years since quinine was dis- 

 covered and isolated: its value as a tonic and febrifuge is so 

 universally known as to be quite independent of special emphasis, 

 and as a prophylactic for persons entering malarial districts it 

 is well-nigh indispensable. We have heard it said that for every 

 disease Nature provides a remedy close at hand, and so, when 



* "Trans. S-A- Phil. Soc-," vol. xvi, part 2. pp- 111-133- 



