PITURI. 



POPULATION, CENTER OF, IN U. S. 755 



1'Homme et des Animaux," the " Gazette Medi- 

 cale," the "Revue des Sciences Medicales," 

 and the " Comptes Rendus " of the Academy 

 of Sciences, in France; the " Archivs" of Du 

 Bois- Raymond and of Pfluger, the " Zeitschrift 

 fiir Biologie," the " Zeitschrift zur Anatomie 

 und Physiologic," Virchow's " Archiv," and 

 numerous special publications in Germany ; 

 and the " Archivio per le Scienze Mediche," the 

 " Archivio per 1' Anthropologia e la Etnologia," 

 and the " Rivista di Frenatria," in Italy ; be- 

 sides a number of publications in the Nether- 

 lands and the Scandinavian states. 



PITURL Pituri, pitury, pedgery, or bedg- 

 ery, as it is variously called, is a sedative pre- 

 pared from the dried leaves and twigs of an 

 Australian plant possessing narcotic properties 

 much resembling those of tobacco. It is prob- 

 ably the plant formerly known as Anthoeercis 

 Hopwocdii, or Duboisia Hopwoodii as classed 

 by Baron von Muller, and recently named Du- 

 toisia pituri by Dr. Bancroft, belonging to the 

 order of Solanacecs. Pituri is obtained with 

 difficulty from the blacks, who greatly prize it. 

 The plant grows in the country of the Mulli- 

 gan or Kykockodilla tribe, a part of the almost 

 unexplored regions near the center of Aus- 

 tralia. The dried pituri has a pale-brown col- 

 or, and emita a smell resembling that of to- 

 bacco. Inhaled in the form of dust it causes 

 sneezing. Its habitat is a district about one 

 hundred miles broad and two hundred miles 



long, lying between the twenty-third and 

 twenty-fifth parallels of southern latitude, 

 and extending on both sides of the boundary 

 between New South Wales and South Aus- 

 tralia. It is, as described by Bancroft, a shrub 

 growing eight feet high, and having a stem 

 sometimes six inches through at the base. The 

 wood is light, close-grained, and of a lemon- 

 color when newly cut, giving forth an odor 

 like vanilla. The leaves are pointed at both 

 ends, three inches long and one fourth of an 

 inch wide. The flower has a small, funnel- 

 shaped corolla spreading into five blunt divis- 

 ions. The fruit consists of black berries. The 

 natives chew pituri, first mixing it with the 

 ashes of leaves, so that the alkaloid may not 

 be liberated too rapidly. The effects seem to 

 be similar to those induced by tobacco-smok- 

 ing. Piturine is a volatile, oily alkaloid, of a 

 dark-brown color, closely resembling duboi- 

 sine, the alkaloid of Duboisia myoporoide, but 

 differing in having a burning, acrid taste, and 

 irritating the eyes and respiratory passages to 

 a greater extent. It has an odor like that of 

 tobacco. Petit, on analyzing a small quantity 

 in Paris, came to the erroneous conclusion that 

 it is identical with nicotine, with which alka- 

 loid it has fewer analogies than with duboisine. 

 The formula is CH 8 N. 



POPULATION, THE CENTER OF, IN* TOE 

 UNITED STATES. This title, as it is used, is in- 

 tended to indicate the center of gravity of the 



HAMILTON COUNTY. 



KENTON COUNTY 



KENTUCKY. 



population. To obtain this result, a definition 

 is adopted by those who compile the Federal 

 census, which is thus expressed : It " is the 

 point at which equilibrium would be reached 

 were the country taken as a plane surf.-uv, 

 itself without weight, but capable of sustain- 

 ing weight, and loaded with its inhabitants, in 



number and position as they are found at 

 the period under consideration, each individual 

 being assumed to be of the same gravity as 

 every other, and consequently to exert pressure 

 on the pivotal point directly proportioned to 

 his distance therefrom." 

 Thus understood, the center of population 



