364 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—B. 
Prof. D. Keriin, F.R.S., Dr. P. Tate and Dr. M. Vincent.— 
Chemotherapy of bird malaria and its importance in relation to the 
therapeutics of human malaria (11.20). 
Since it was shown that quinine and some other quinoline compounds 
act in a similar way on human and bird malaria, the latter has been used as 
a valuable means of testing the anti-malarial action of new synthetic com- 
pounds. Synthetic quinoline compounds prepared by Prof. R. Robinson 
and co-workers have been tested on bird malaria in Cambridge. ‘Twenty- 
four of the eighty compounds tested have definite anti-malarial action. 
Routine tests on birds are made on asexual stages of the parasite trans- 
mitted by direct blood-inoculation, but by utilising mosquito infections it 
is possible to determine the action of a compound on gametocytes and on 
sporozoites ; and such tests of some of Prof. Robinson’s compounds will 
be considered in detail. 
Work on anti-malarial properties of drugs reveals interesting facts about 
immunity in bird malaria as their action varies according to the relation 
between the times of inoculation with malaria and of administration of the 
drugs. 
The results of work on bird malaria are not always applicable to human 
malaria, but so far every synthetic compound of value in human malaria 
has been discovered by means of preliminary tests on bird malaria. 
Dr. T. A. Henry.—Anti-malarial drugs of natural origin (11.40). 
(a) The investigation of natural drugs having a local reputation as reme- 
dies for malaria, e.g. the Alstonias of Australia, India, West Africa and the 
Pacific Islands, from which Messrs. Goodson and Sharp have isolated a 
group of alkaloids which are of scientific interest, but are devoid of anti- 
malarial activity. 
(6) The determination of the relative activities of the various cinchona 
alkaloids, a matter of practical importance in view of the introduction of 
crude mixtures of cinchona alkaloids as a means of mass-treatment of 
indigent malarial populations. For this purpose the eight principal cinchona 
alkaloids have been prepared in a pure state and tested in bird malaria. 
The results show that they can be arranged in the following descending 
order of activity : 
(1) Hydroquinine, (2) Quinine, (3) Hydroquinidine, (4) Cinchonidine 
and Quinidine, (5) Cinchonine, Hydrocinchonine and Hydro- 
cinchonidine. 
(c) The effects of modification in the molecular structure of cinchona 
alkaloids on anti-malarial action. In general it may be stated that any 
change, which diminishes the basic character of such an alkaloid as quinine, 
reduces its anti-malarial activity, though it may result in the development 
of pharmacological activity of another kind. 
Col. Sir RickaRD CHRISTOPHERS, F.R.S—Chemotherapeutic effect as 
a combination through a basic side chain : absorption of acid and 
base by red cells (12.0). 
A usual conception of chemotherapeutic effect is molecular fit. The 
chemical nature of such fit is often not very clear, but the necessity of a 
basic side chain for linkage to protein is sometimes referred to. All anti- 
malarial drugs natural and synthetic have such side chains. With a view to 
studying such combination, observations have been made upon absorption 
