1889.] Address. 99 



able properties of its abundant indigenous vegetable products and drugs 

 lias engaged the attention of some of our chemists. 



In Bengal, Professors Pedler and Warden have published in our 

 Journal an account of their investigation of the properties of Bish 

 Kachu, a member of the large family of Aroidece, a natural order of 

 which some species in most parts of the woidd bear an evil reputation. 

 In India, especially, certain arums are held to be highly toxic, and 

 the paper contains valuable information regarding the whole family. 

 The results obtained indicate that the toxic symptoms induced by in- 

 gestion of the bisli Icachu are referable to the mechanical irritation 

 caused by the raphides, or minute needles, of calcic oxalate which are 

 found in all parts of the plant, and not to the presence of any specific 

 poisonous principle. 



They have also examined the bark of the Anona squamosa, or custard- 

 apple tree, and from it isolated a crystalline neutral principle, an acid 

 resin, and a viscid neutral body. Also the dried carpels of Xanthoxyhtm 

 elatuni, which had some years previously, been the subject of a research 

 by Dr. Stenhouse, who obtained from them an essential oil and a stear- 

 opten. Messrs. Pedler and Warden have determined some of the 

 physical constants of the essential oil but have failed to isolate a 

 stearopten. They also separated a fixed oil, and a yellow acid principle. 



Pew drugs have within the last few years caused greater interest 

 than the alkaloid cocaine, contained in the leaves of the Erythroxylon 

 coca. Though the stimulating property of the leaves when chewed was 

 known to the Indians of Peru more than 300 years ago, it was not until 

 Koller pointed out, in 1884, the remarkable anasstketic properties of co- 

 caine, that the drug received attention from the medical profession. In 

 1S84 the price of this alkaloid was about 2.9. 6d. a grain and the demand 

 was almost greater than the supply. The cultivation of the plant thus 

 appeared likely to prove profitable. Seedlings of it were distributed to 

 various tea-gardens by the Agi'i-Horticultural Society of India, and last 

 year Dr. Warden examined a large number of samples of locally grown 

 leaves and found that they were exceptionally rich in alkaloid, and that 

 physiologically the drug is in no way inferior to that obtained from 

 other sources. His investigations were published in the Journal of the 

 Agri- Horticultural Society of India. 



During the foregoing investigation Dr. Warden isolated cocatanuic 

 acid. The acid hitherto described under that name, and first observed 

 by Wackenroder and Gaedecke, is probably a decomposition product of 

 the acid now isolated for the first time. 



He has also isolated the active principle of the berries of the Embc- 

 lia vibes, the ' Barbarang ' of native materia medica, which have long been 



