100 Address. [Feb. 



highly esteemed as a vermifuge in this country. It is a golden coloured 

 crystalline acid, and he has designated it UJmbellio acid. 



From Delphinium zalil, a drug used chiefly in. Bombay for dyeing 

 silk, but also believed to possess medicinal properties, he has isolated a 

 yellow acid and certain other principles ; and from the stems and roots 

 of the Gocculus villosus obtained a bitter alkaloid and other principles. 

 An examination of the bitter oil contained in the almond of the Melea 

 azadirachta, or Nim tree, commonly called ■ Margosa oil,' shows it to be 

 highly complex in composition. This oil had already been examined by 

 Dr. Cornish in 1856, and from it he isolated a substance called margosic 

 acid, but did not investigate its composition or properties. Dr. 

 Warden's results will be found in the Pharmaceutical Journal. 



It is to be hoped that Messrs. Pedler and Warden will continue 

 these interesting researches. The demand for new medicinal principles 

 is unceasing, and if openings can be made for the encouragement of 

 the cultivation in this country of the plants containing them, the bene- 

 fits to the world at large and to this country will be great. 



It is not often that a chemical manufacturing process has origin in 

 India. This year, however, has been marked by the invention and 

 application of a very ingenious process for the manufacture of quinine 

 from cinchona bark. It depends on the solvent action of fusel oil 

 on the cinchona alkaloids ; and is actually worked by agitating 

 very finely powdered bark, which has previously been mixed with 

 an alkali, in a mixture of fusel and kerosine oils. The alkaloids 

 displaced by the alkali from their natural combinations in the bark 

 become dissolved in the mixture of oils, from which they are in turn 

 recovered by the addition of dilute sulphuric acid. From the acid solu- 

 tion thus obtained the crystals of sulphate of quinine ultimately form 

 out, and by a slight subsequent purification are ready for use. This 

 beautiful and simple invention was originated by Mr. 0. H. Wood, 

 lately Quinologist to the Government of Bengal ; and it has been worked 

 out by Mr. J. Gammie, resident manager of the Cinchona plantation 

 near Darjiling. By making the invention public property, the Govern- 

 ment has thus completed the task, which it began in 1861, of so cheapen- 

 ing the only remedy for the commonest disease of the tropics as to put 

 it within the reach of the poorest sufferer. 



In Madras, Mr. David Hooper, the Government Quinologist, has 

 examined the leaves of the Adhatoda vasica, or " Arusa," a widely distri- 

 buted plant used in medicine, as a dye, and also in agriculture. The latter 

 use is interesting. In the Sutlej valley the fresh leaves are scattered 

 over recently flooded fields, under the idea that they act as a manure 

 and also poison the aquatic weeds that otherwise would injure the 



