BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE, EXETER. 421 



neither uninstructive nor uninteresting if I direct your attention 1869. 

 to a very few of the numerous valuable communications on 

 pharmaceutical subjects that have been brought forward during 

 the last twelve months, though as I have hinted, it is impossible 

 for me to offer any fair re'sume' of them in the few brief moments 

 at my disposal. 



First let me notice the continued labours of Mr. John Eliot 

 Howard on the chemistry and physiology of Cinchona, of which Howard's 

 good proof is presented in his recently published Quinology of 

 the East India Plantations, a copy of which is oji the table. In 

 this fine work, the author discusses a variety of subjects con- 

 nected with the culture of Cinchona in India, such as the 

 acclimatization of the various species, the elevation above the 

 sea-level at which the culture proves most successful, the effects 

 of protecting with moss the stems from which the bark has been 

 removed, the mode in which the bark is renewed, and the chemi- 

 cal constitution of the wood and leaves of Cinchona. The so- 

 called mossing process, which simple as it is, seems likely to play 

 an important part in Cinchona-culture, consists in covering with 

 moss the portion of stem from which a strip of bark has been 

 carefully removed. 1 The wood thus laid bare exudes a delicate 

 cellular tissue, having the aspect of minute gelatinous drops, 

 which gradually increasing and hardening, ultimately forms a 

 continuous layer of new bark : and now comes the interesting 

 fact that this new bark is richer in alkaloids than that which it 

 replaced ; and bark of the second renewal is richer than that 

 of the first, and of the third than that of the second. " Is this 

 state of things," says Mr. Howard, " to last and become per- 

 manent, so that by continually stripping the trees of portions 

 of their external covering it should become in the same propor- 

 tion more rich in the very product that we need ? This seems 

 very improbable, yet it is the conclusion to be arrived at from 

 the above experiments." 



The increase of alkaloids, let me observe, is not trifling but 

 in extreme cases is almost double. It is also stated that bark 



i The entire removal of the bark from a stem is a destructive practice never 

 adopted in India. 



