■906 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 77. 



Khus poisoning was illustrated by experiments 

 carried out by the writer ou himself. These 

 experiments also showed conclusively that 

 toxicodendrol was the vesicating principle of 

 the poisonous species of Ehus. 



Mr. Ewell read the second paper of the even- 

 ing on ' The Eifect of Acidity on the Develop- 

 ment of the Nitrifying Organs,' by E. E. Ewell 

 and H. W. Wiley. While it has been known 

 for many years that active nitrification occurs 

 only in the presence of some basic substance 

 capable of neutralizing the free acid as fast as 

 it can be formed, very little time has been de- 

 voted to the study of the exact degree of acidity 

 that the nitrifying organisms can endure. As 

 the authors had some forty samples of soil at 

 their disposal during the last year for other 

 purposes, it seemed wise to improve the oppor- 

 tunity to test the influence of acidity on the 

 nitrifying organisms contained in the soils from 

 various parts of the country. Tests were made 

 with forty-four different soils, from twenty-two 

 States and Territories. The results showed 

 great uniformity in the relation to acidity of 

 the organisms contained in the various soils. 

 Excluding five tests in which no nitrification, 

 and five tests in which it was excessive be- 

 cause of the calcareous nature of the soils used 

 for the seeding of the cultures, the average 

 amount of nitrogen nitrified was twenty parts 

 per million ; the minimum result of the thirty- 

 four tests Included in this average was eleven, 

 and the maximum twenty-five parts per million. 

 The tests are to be repeated with pure cultures 

 of the nitrifying organisms of the same soils. 

 This series of experiments was made as a study 

 of the nitrous organisms only, but the results 

 show that the organisms are not more sensitive 

 to acidity than the nitrous organisms, the final 

 product being nitrate in nearly every case. 



The third paper was on ' The Chemistry of 

 the Cactaceae,' by E. E. Ewell. Until very 

 recently other species of cacti than Cereus 

 grandiflorus and a few related species have gen- 

 erally been regarded as devoid of constituents 

 of pharmacological value. These and other 

 species have been used in medical practice in 

 the countries in which they grow, but their use 

 has rarely extended to the more civilized 

 nations. Species of the genus Anhaloniinn 



have long been used for curative and cere- 

 monial purposes by the Indians of Mexico and 

 the southwestern parts of our own countrj'. 

 They found place in the Mexican pharmacopeia 

 of 1842, under the name of 'pellote,' or 

 ' Peyotl,' but have been omitted from the later 

 editions. The dried aerial portions of species 

 of Anhalonmni figure in the commerce of our 

 southwestern border under the name of 

 'mescal buttons.' The species of this genus 

 have been the subject of scientific investigation 

 by at least three groups of persons during re- 

 cent years : First, a group of persons at Berlin, 

 where the work was begun by Dr. L. Lewin, 

 the crude material being supplied to him 

 by Messrs. Parke, Davis & Co. , of Detroit ; 

 second, a group of persons at the Pharmacolo- 

 gical Institue at Leipzic, where the work has 

 been conducted by Dr. Arthur Hefl^ter ; third, a 

 group of persons in this country, centering iu 

 the Bureau of American Ethnology and includ- 

 ing as associates the Division of Chemistry of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture 

 for chemical studies, Drs. Prentiss and Morgan 

 for a study of physiological properties, and the 

 Botanical Division of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture for the settlement 

 of botanical questions. 



In this country the separation of the constit- 

 uents of these plants, and the study of the ac- 

 tion of the substances thus obtained, as well as 

 of the crude materials, upon men and the lower 

 animals, were begun in the autumn of 1894, but 

 before receiving the paper of Heflfter. A. lew- 

 inii, in the form of ' mescal buttons,' has served 

 as the material for these studies. Anhaloniu 

 and a second alkaloid have been separated in 

 considerable ciuantity. A complete chemical 

 study of the constituents of the plant is in pro- 

 cess, including those substances of interest to the 

 vegetable physiologist as well as those of interest 

 to the therapeutist. The paper was illustrated 

 with specimens of the cactus of difierent vari- 

 eties from the Botanical Gardeus and the De- 

 partment of Agriculture. 



Mr. Mooney followed with a paper on ' The 

 Mescal (Ceremony among the Indians.' The 

 mescal plant is a small variety of cactus, native 

 to the lower Rio Grande region and about the 

 Pecos Kiver iu eastern Kew Mexico. The 



