April 1, 1365.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



FOOD-VALUE OF THE KOLA-NUT. 425 



Search was first made for theine. Colouring matter, mucilage, &c, having 

 been precipitated from a decoction of the nut by solution of basic acetate 

 of lead, and excess of lead removed from the filtered liquid by sulphide 

 of hydrogen, the clear supernatant fluid was evaporated to dryness over 

 a bath, the residue digested in hot alcohol, and the latter evaporated to a 

 small bulk. This on cooling solidified to a pasty mass of crystals, which 

 were examined and found to have, all the characters of theine. They 

 were identical in crystalline form with some theine prepared from tea, 

 both when seen under the microscope with and without polarized light, 

 and in their general silky character when viewed by the naked eye ; they 

 yielded the beautiful colouring-matter known as red cafFeo-murexid 

 when treated with nascent oxygen, and gave gaseous methylamine when 

 treated with caustic potash. These reactions and the effect of the nuts 

 on Dr. Daniell, together with the well-known peculiar curved or fandike 

 character of the crystalline masses as usually formed, and their long, 

 acicular form when deposited from a highly dilute and perfectly pure 

 alcoholic solution, as in preparing a specimen for the microscope, will 

 probably be considered sufficient to establish the identity of the crystals 

 with theine. I shall,' however, subject the substance to ultimate analysis 

 so soon as the possession of more nuts enables me to prepare a sufficient 

 amount. A quantitative determination showed that the proportion of 

 theine present in dried Kola-nut is 2 per cent. Coffee contains from 

 •5 to 2 - 0, and tea from - 5 to 3 - 5 parts in 100. 



The dried nut3 were next examined for any basic, neutral, or acid 

 principle to which the properties other than those of causing sleeplessness 

 might be due, but no such principle was found. This result might have 

 been expected, from the statement that the fresh nuts lose somuch of their 

 properties in drying as to greatly diminish in value. Moreover, the 

 fresh nuts, Dr. Daniell tells me, have a bitter taste, while the dried frag-' 

 ments I examined had no trace of bitterness. Apparently, therefore, it is 

 to the bitter principle that a portion of the activity of the nut must be 

 ascribed. I shall endeavour to throw more light on this point when I 

 succeed in obtaining specimens that have been preserved in a moist con- 

 dition. 



The presence of theine, then, at once points to the analogy of Kola- 

 nut, or at least of dried Kola-nut, with coffee, tea, and two other similar 

 but less common substances — Paraguay tea and Guarana. Infusions 

 of one or other of these vegetables products are used as beverages pro- 

 bably by three- fourths of the human race, and each contains the same 

 active principle — theine. To these must now be added the Kola-nut. 

 Thus does Chemistry reveal the true reason why the unerring instinct of 

 man, even in his savage state, has led him to select from the many 

 thousands of plants presented to him in nature, just four or five with 

 •which to concoct a beverage that would seem to be a necessary rather 

 than a luxury of life. And what makes the matter more remarkable is 

 that these plants are not botanically allied. What theine really does 



