1889.] Address. 101 



rice crops. The leaves and extracts are also valuable as insecticides, 

 the alcoholic extract of the leaves being an intensely lethal poison 

 to all the lower orders of animal life, while producing no appreciable 

 effect on healthy animals of the higher orders. From the leaves Mr. 

 Hooper has isolated a well defined alkaloid, Vasicine, and an acid 

 which he has termed Adhatodic acid. 



The rhamniads, or buckthorns, have long been known to yield 

 important products used in medicine and the arts. The berries of some 

 of the European varieties of Bhamnus have been examined by Lefort, 

 Stein and Schiitzenberger and certain crystalline glucosides obtained, 

 but so far the cathartic principle was unknown. The introduction of 

 the bark of B. frangula and B. parshianus into the last British Pharma- 

 copoeia led Mr. Hooper to examine the bark of an Asiatic species, B. 

 Wightii, from which he has been able to isolate Cathartic acid, a 

 crystalline body, several resins, resin acids and neutral principles. 



Another bark examined by Mr. Hooper has been that of the Miclielia 

 Nilagirica, one of the most abundant and perhaps most characteristic of 

 the forest trees of the ISTilgiri Hills. The bark appears to have lately 

 attracted some attention on the Continent as a source of a new aromatic 

 essential oil, and it is believed to possess febrifugal properties. 



Mr. Hooper communicated two interesting papers to the last annual 

 meeting of the Pharmaceutical Confei-ence, one on " Carthagena bark " ; 

 the other on the " Hybridisation of Cinchonas.' ' 



In Bombay we learn that Dr. Dymock, the Avell-known authority 

 on Indian Materia Medica, is preparing a third edition of his work on 

 indigenous drugs, under the title of the Pharmacograpliia Indica. It 

 may pei-haps be mentioned, as an indication of the high appreciation in 

 which Dr. Dymock's investigations on Indian drugs are held in England, 

 that he was lately awarded the Hanbury medal at a meeting of the 

 Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. 



It will thus be seen that good progress is being made in the v 

 ing out of Indian drugs, &c, hut entirely by the European office] 

 Government, though the subject is one which might have been expe 

 to have attracted the attention of native students of medicine more 

 it appears to have done. It should be mentioned, however, that Mr. John 

 Taswoo White, a native of Burma, has published in the ' Chemical Neios' 

 communications on " Analytical Processes." 



Telegraphy and Electrical Science. 

 Not the least important among the practical sciences is Telegraphy, 

 and to us in India, where we have to maintain nol only n largely in- 

 iing daily communication with Europe and other foreign count 



