Feb. 2, 1882 | 
nida, and Myriopoda—as, to speak the truth, was even 
more than likely—we have a neat little account of them 
given here. We have written enough to indicate what a 
freshly-written and interesting though condensed article 
this is, though on a well-worn theme, and we must be 
pardoned for so briefly touching on the burning question 
of classification. 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
The Vear-Book of Pharmacy, and Transactions of the 
Pharmaceutical Conference. 8vo. Pp. 560. (London: 
Churchill, 1881.) 
THIS year-book is divided into several parts—an intro- 
duction, which gives a short account of all that has been 
done in the year, a section in chemistry, another on 
materia medica and pharmacy, one on notes and formule, 
another on bibliography, and !astly, the transactions of 
the British Pharmaceutical Conference at York. A 
number of short abstracts of interesting papers are in- 
cluded in the work. The excitement caused by the recent 
case of poisoning by aconitine is likely to make the reader 
turn first to the papers on this alkaloid. Dr. Wright has 
furnished his researches on the alkaloids of aconite, the 
chief being aconitine, which is the active principle of the 
ordinary monkshood, and the pseud-aconitine, which is 
the still more deadly alkaloid of the aconitum ferox. 
Powerful as those poisons are, one much more powerful 
has been obtained by Dr. Langgaard from a species of 
Japanese aconite. Another paper, of much interest from 
a forensic point of view, is one on ptomaines, or alka- 
loidal bodies found in human corpses after exhuma- 
tion. These are actual poisons, formed in the body by 
putrefaction, and bearing considerable resemblance, both 
in their chemical reactions and poisonous effects upon 
animals, to natural vegetable alkaloids. This subject is 
one of very great importance, as the condemnation of 
perfectly innocent persons might result from one of these 
ptomaines being mistaken for a vegetable poison. There 
are a number of other researches on the active principles 
of various plants, remedial and poisonous, but all these 
yield in interest to those on the synthesis of similar 
bodies, for the great object of medicine is to cure, not by 
chance, but with certainty, and towards this object all 
branches of medical science are as present tending. 
It was formerly the reproach of medicine that doctors 
poured drugs of which they knew little into bodies 
of which they knew less; but now, thanks to experi- 
ments made upon animals, instead of upon patients, they 
now know a good deal both of the bodies they have to 
treat and the remedies which they are using. Hitherto, 
however, they have been compelled to use many powerful 
substances derived from plants, but varying more or less 
in their constitutional actions. Numbers of these sub- 
stances have now been examined, and it is probable that 
before long we shall make them artificially. Prof. 
Ladenburg has now obtained atropine and_hyos- 
cyamine trom the nightshade, thorn-apple, henbane, 
and Duboisia, and has lately got a third principle, 
hyoscine, from henbane. By decomposing atropine he 
he obtained tropic acid and tropine, and by recombining 
these products he again formed atropine. In conjunction 
with L. Riigheimer, he has now succeeded in making 
tropic acid synthetically from aceto-phenone, and we now 
await the synthesis of tropine in order to complete the 
method of preparing atropine artificially. M. Grimaux 
has succeeded in converting morphia into codia, an- 
other of the alkaloids of opium ; and such researches as 
these, taken in connection with the rapid advance of our 
knowledge regarding the physiological action of these 
substances, leads us to hope that the day may not be so 
far distant when a medical man, wishing to produce a 
certain effect upon his patient, will no longer have to 
NATURE 
315 
search haphazard amongst various plants, but will direct 
the chemist to make the particular body which he 
requires. We may mention still another paper, less in- 
teresting to medical men, but more so to the public at 
large. Prof. Baeyer succeeded, some years ago, in pre- 
paring indigo artificially, but the process was so expensive 
that it was not likely to be of much practical importance. 
He has now, however, succeeded in effecting the synthesis 
in another way, by which he can not only produce the 
indigo much more cheaply, but can produce it within the 
fibre of the material to be dyed. The artificial produc- 
tion of alizarin has already wrought a great change in the 
commercial relations of the South of France, and if 
indigo be produced synthetically at a lower price than it 
can be grown, similar alterations may result in some 
parts of our Indian Empire. 
The New Ceylon. Being a sketch of British North 
Borneo, or Sabah. From official and other sources of 
information. Written and compiled by Joseph Hatton. 
(London: Chapman and Hall, 1881.) 
IT was hardly to be expected that the new British posses- 
sion in North Borneo, to which the Queen has recently 
granted a charter, should long remain without its 
chronicler. Information at first hand respecting the 
country is very scarce, but, in the absence of this, Mr. 
Joseph Hatton in his little volume furnishes us with all 
that we can expect for the present. The materials placed 
at his disposal consisted of certain private letters and re- 
ports from explorers and the correspondence of thedirectors 
of the North Borneo Company. In addition to these he has 
made use of all that has already been written on Borneo, 
and the result—‘‘a pioneer volume,” he modestly calls it 
—is such as might have been expected from Mr. Hat- 
ton’s well-known literary skill. The value of the new 
colony to science is rather potential than actual. In 
Labuan and Sarawak we have only touched the fringes 
of this vast island; we know but little of its mineral 
wealth and other natural resources; its geography, 
geology, fauna, and flora, have never been thoroughly 
studied. Even Mr. Carl Bock, in the journey described 
in his recent volume, only crossed a small corner of 
Borneo. With a settled government, under the British 
flag, we may expect a great increase in our knowledge of 
one of the largest and most interesting islands in the 
world. Mr. Hatton could, had he chosen, have added an 
interesting account of the early trade of the East India 
Company to Bandjermassin and other ports in Borneo 
from the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, edited 
by Mr. Sainsbury. 
LETIERS, LO THE EDITOR 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his correspondents, Neither can he undertake to return, 
or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 
No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 
[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 
as short as possible. The pressuye on his space is so great 
that it is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even 
of communications containing interesting and ncvel facts. | 
Earth-Currents 
Tue Astronomer Royal desires me to mention, in regard to Mr. 
W. H. Preece’s communication (p. 289) describing an unusually 
sudden appearance of earth-currents between 1oh, and 11h. p.m. 
on January 19, that our magnetic and earth-current registers 
both show, throughout the night of January 19, more or less of 
unusual disturbance, never however very considerable. The 
greatest deviation occurred in a sudden wave at Ioh. I5m., as 
Mr. Preece describes. From toh, 50m. until midnight there 
was general quiet, and the disturbance afterwards was not great. 
WILLIAM ELLIs 
Royal Observatory, Greenwich, S.E., January 28 
