1888.] Toxic Prmciple of the Aroidese. 113 



necessitate admission of the person into the Medical College Hospital ; the 

 stomach-pump was used as the symptoms were those of irritant poisoning. 

 Recovery ensued. 



The European A. maculatum has been analyzed by Bucholy and Euz, 

 and the American variety by D. S. Jones. According to the editors of 

 the National Dispensatory, Jones proved the presence of starch, sugar, 

 gum, albumen, resin, fat, and extractives, besides the volatile acrid prin- 

 ciple, which is soluble in ether. Enz in 1858 obtained also saponin, 

 " while Bird believes that a volatile alkaloid may be present." 



The tubers employed by us in our experiments were kindly supplied 

 by the Civil Surgeon of Dibrugarh, and were of the variety known 

 locally as Bish Kachu and similar to those used in the case which he had 

 referred to the Chemical Examiner. We made over a tuber to Dr. King, 

 F. B. S., Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, for 

 identification. Dr. King informs us that it is most probably a species 

 of Alocasia or Colocasia. But the leaves of the species of these genera 

 are so much alike that it is impossible to identify them without flowers. 



In our experiments the tubers were first peeled ; during this opera- 

 tion, considerable irritation was experienced about the hands, but there 

 was a complete absence of any irritative action on the olfactory organs 

 or conjunctivEe. This fact appeared to us to point towards the non- 

 volatile nature of the active principle. In a preliminary experiment we 

 tried the effect of an injection of a portion of a tuber into a cat's stomach ; 

 8 grammes of a peeled and fresh tnber were rubbed down with about 

 15 c. c. of water and the mixture strained through muslin. The turbid 

 fluid thus obtained was injected into a small healthy cat's stomach at 

 1.8 P. M. ; at 1.22 p. M. the cat was a little restless, but this soon passed 

 oif, and, as far as we were able to ascertain, no ill-effects subsequently 

 ensued as a result of the injection. There was no question about the 

 activity of the sample used in this experiment, because a minute fragment 

 applied to the tip of the tongue caused in a very short time acute 

 lancinating pain, which continued for a considerable period. 



In order to obtain an alcoholic extract, the peeled and sliced tubers 

 were strung on wire and exposed to the air to dry. The dried slices were 

 then easily reduced to powder. The powder was packed in a percolator, 

 and exhausted with hot 60 0. P. alcohol. The alcohol having been driven 

 off by the heat of a water-bath, the viscid extract remaining was examin- 

 ed as follows. A portion was mixed with bread and given to a mouse 

 without any effect. A large portion of the extract was treated by Stas's 

 process for the extraction of alkaloids, and the ethereal extract given 

 to a mouse with negative results. In these experiments we observed 

 that, while the fresh tubers caused a marked physiological action when 

 15 



