HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



inactive crystalline substances designated kavahin (methysticin) and 

 yangonin, and a doubtful alkaloid kavaine. We have here a group of 

 names possessing peculiar interest since they are clever fabrications 

 upon the common and specific names of the plant, and this holds of 

 yangonin as much as the others, for it is created from the Fijian 

 name of the plant yanggona. In German pharmacology methysticin 

 is regarded as a narcotic and has become officinal in the treatment of 

 asthma. The chemistry of kava and its clinical history will be found 

 exhaustively presented at page 874 of The Pharmacology of the Newer 

 Materia Medica (Detroit: Parke, Davis & Co.). To the courtesy of 

 Prof. Frank G. Ryan, now at the head of that firm of pharmaceu- 

 tical manufacturers, I am indebted for a copy of a separate of the 

 article on kava; a copy of the work from which this has been extracted 

 may be found in the library of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. 

 The manner in which the Samoans as well as most of the islanders 

 who employ the beverage prepare the root for maceration has failed 

 to commend itself to Europeans; we find it designated a "nasty cup", 

 and as "disgustingly prepared stuff". It is familiar to all who have 

 any acquaintance with kava that the dry root was slowly masti- 

 cated by a company of young girls or of boys. The missionaries, sus- 

 pecting the buccal flora which might thus become incorporated with 

 the liquor, have effected a change, at least in part, and in every kava 

 ceremony in which Europeans are expected to participate the root is 

 brayed between stones. Yet the existence of the chewing custom in 

 so many communities is evidence that it must carry some advantage. 

 The islanders maintain that chewed kava has a better taste, and, if 

 it were not for a wholesome fear of the micro-organisms of the mouth, 

 I should accord with this judgment. The beverage made from brayed 

 kava has a raw and woody taste, that prepared by chewing is lacking 

 in the raw flavor, is apparently more potent and smoother. It is not 

 difficult to see why this should be so. In the preceding analysis of 

 kava root it will be noticed that the starch percentage is approxi- 

 mately half of the whole amount. In the mouth an abundant flow of 

 saliva is induced and this high starch content as the result of the action 

 of the enzyme ptyalin is largely converted into maltose which is 

 soluble in the water of maceration. In preparing a gallon of kava 

 recently for class demonstration I took the advice of a skilled physi- 

 ological chemist and after braying the root added a supply of diastase 

 to the infusion. No test was made to determine if the resultant 

 sugar was the same as that produced by ptyalization, but the liquor 

 had exactly the same taste as that produced by chewing. Reinecke 

 (Samoa 158) writes: "Ubrigens bevorzugen Kavakenner gekaute 



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