Some Notes Regarding- South African Pharmacology . 115 



to what may be called the pharmacology of our flora than any strictly 

 botanical writer, and in this respect the enlarged third edition of that 

 little work, published in 1895, is a distinct step in advance of any 

 previous publication. 



Not even Smith, however, although he dealt more extensively than 

 any previous writer with the physiological effects of many native 

 herbs, can be considered as contributing much to the knowledge we 

 possess regarding the nature of the drugs themselves. He hazards, 

 it is true, a few guesses, notably in the earlier editions, but without 

 the authority of direct chemical confirmation, it is not unusual for 

 such hypotheses to turn out as erroneous as Grey's identification of 

 the ornithogalum poison with strychnine. A very similar mistake to 

 this is the sweeping statement made in the earlier editions of 

 Smith's " Materia Medica " to the effect that Acocanthera venenata 

 contains the alkaloid brucine. This error has been rectified in the 

 last edition. 



As a matter of fact I know of only one published paper that can 

 claim to be at all indicative of the course that experimenters in 

 this direction should adopt, namely, Mr. Isaac Meiring's " Notes on 

 Some Experiments with the Active Principle of Mesembrianthemum 

 tortuomm, L.," read before a meeting of this Society in September,. 

 1896, and published in Volume 9 of the Society's Transactions. 

 Mr. Meiring was successful in isolating an alkaloid, which he tested 

 by means of several well-recognised chemical reagents, and recorded 

 the results, as well as the physiological experiments which he 

 performed, in his paper. 



I do not wish to assert that no other investigations of such a 

 nature have ever been made, but, if they have been performed, they 

 have certainly not been made public, if I except the few disconnected 

 notes on the subject which have from time to time appeared in the 

 annual reports of the laboratory under my charge. 



It is far from my intention to claim that in that laboratory 

 anything at all approaching to an adequate research into the nature 

 of any new or unknown drug has been made. I have already stated 

 the reason why this cannot be : unfortunately, such researches need 

 more freedom from the special exigencies of the moment than it is 

 usual to find in our Government laboratories. I only desire to say a 

 few words about what has actually been done — although in each 

 case the investigation, I dare not dignify it with the name of 

 research, has been but the handmaid to the criminal procedure 

 of the law courts — with the hope that my remarks may act as an 

 incentive to provide for more systematic researches, and for en- 

 larging their scope, so that they may include the study of the active 



