144 Mr Scott, On Carbon Monoxide and Oxygen. [April 27, 



(4) On the combining volumes of Carbon Monoxide and Oxygen. 

 By A. Scott, M.A., Trinity College. 



Mr Scott described some preliminary experiments made to 

 determine the ratio by volume in which carbon monoxide and 

 oxygen unite to form carbon dioxide and to determine at the same 

 time the volume of the latter gas in terms of the others. Experi- 

 ments so far shewed that the ratio was very nearly 2 : 1 for the 

 combining gases, but that satisfactory determinations of the 

 volume of carbon dioxide produced had not been obtained as yet. 



(5) The constituents of Indian hemp resin. By T. H. Easter- 

 field, M.A., Clare College, and T. B. Wood, M.A., Caius College. 



Cannabis Sativa (syn. inclica) is made use of by nearly all the 

 nations of Southern Asia and Northern Africa on account of the 

 toxic constituents which it contains. It is stated that the plant 

 when grown in Europe has no narcotic action, but this statement 

 requires confirmation. The most common use to which the plant 

 is put is as a substitute for opium or tobacco amongst smokers, 

 but sweetmeats, drinks, and pills are also prepared, and all possess 

 narcotic effects to a greater or less degree. The word Haschish 

 is generic and applies to any preparation from the hemp plant 

 ready for immediate use. 



Many investigators have already endeavoured to isolate from 

 the hemp plant the substance to which the characteristic physio- 

 logical action is due. Amongst the earliest workers in this direction 

 T. and H. Smith of Edinburgh (1847) should be specially men- 

 tioned. They prepared a resin from the alcoholic extract of the 

 plant which produced the effects obtainable from Haschish. At 

 a later date Personne attributed the effects of Cannabis to volatile 

 oils ; other observers again have stated that alkaloids are present 

 in the plant but they have not succeeded in shewing that the 

 alkaloidal substances can produce the same effects as are usually 

 produced by Haschish. The experiments of the authors have 

 shewn that the resin of T. and H. Smith contains a large per- 

 centage of the narcotic constituent, but that the resin itself is 

 pot a pure chemical compound. 



rm That the narcotic constituent is most certainly to be found in 

 aqi plant resin is emphatically shewn by the fact that the prepa- 

 tuion which is universally regarded by the natives of India as 

 and cast powerful and dangerous drug which the plant can yield 

 isolating more nor less than the natural resin exuded in large 

 quantity by the ripe plant but more particularly by the full grown, 

 unfertilised female plants. To this resin the name " Charas " is 



