42 EDITORIAL. 



a rubber-like substance was coagulated from the solution when it was 

 heated with a little dilute acid. The arrow poison gives a very slight 

 precipitate with Mayer's solution, but an abundant one with phospho- 

 molybdic acid. These reactions indicated the presence of a glucoside 

 rather than of an alkaloid, which suspicion was strengthened by the 

 reduction of Fehling's solution by arrow poison which had been boiled 

 with dilute acids. The milky sap was extracted with boiling benzol for 

 two days. The extract was evaporated to dryness and the residue treated 

 with boiling water. Basic lead acetate was added to the aqueous solu- 

 tion, it was then filtered and the excess of lead was removed from the 

 filtrate by hydrogen sulphide. The filtrate was neutralized with cal- 

 cium hydroxide and evaporated to dryness, the residue Jjeing extracted 

 with hot alcohol, from which on cooling a small amount of substance 

 separated in the form of small, crystalline, pearly plates. These crystals 

 give an intense, golden-yellow color with concentrated sulphuric acid 

 containing a trace of ferric chloride, which soon passes into a yellowish- 

 red color. The lethal dose of these crystals in guinea pigs was found 

 to be 0.00003 to 0.0000.5 gram per 100 grams of animal. As these 

 reactions correspond very closely with those of the glucoside antiarin 

 from Antiaris lo.ricara it was inimediatel\' suspected that the arrow 

 poison was from this tree, laut as this tree had never been found in the 

 Islands, a Filipino was sent to this part of Mindoro to olatain more of the 

 poison together with botanical material. A quantity of this as well 

 as of the bark was procured, but no more of the poisonous sap. The 

 tree was positively identified as Antiaris toxicara Lichen, identical with 

 the famous jDoison Upas tree of Java. The bark of the tree is quite 

 fibrous and the extract, after Ijeing boiled with dilute acids, has a peculiar 

 and very distinctive odor like that of the sap when treated in the same 

 manner. Six hundred grams of finely ground bark were boiled with 

 water for twelve hours, the whole was then filtered, the adhering liquid 

 pressed out and the solution evaporated to 1 kilo. It was now treated 

 with basic lead acetate, etc., as in the former procedure with the sap of 

 the tree and thus a small amount of crystalline material was obtained 

 which with concentrated sulphuric acid containing a trace of ferric 

 chloride gave a golden-yellow color, later passing into red (Kiliani). 

 With one cubic centimeter of 3 per cent sodium carbonate solution to 

 which three drops of a concentrated solution of picric acid had been added 

 it gave, on heating, an orange color which on continued heating became 

 inore and more red (Wefers-Betinck). The bark also gives this last 

 test very strongly. To obtain an idea of the quantity of antiarin in the 

 bark of this tree, 100 grams of finely divided bark were extracted hot with 

 500 cubic centimeters of water and the filtered extract concentrated to 



