Drugs and 



138 



scattered, a slight green covering of the bed indicates that it has sprouted. As soon 

 as the young plants have developed to the height of about three fingers (one and 

 one-half to two inches) they are replanted in rows in large beds, and thence, after a 

 year's time, during which they grow to a height of one foot, are transplanted into 

 gardens, where holes are dug, some time previously, in rows four feet square. 

 Shortly before transplanting the holes are closed up and the young trees set out by 

 women, each of whom is capable within ten hours of daily work (from 6 a.m. to 

 3 p.m.) of planting 200. Above all, the period following exacts scrupulous cleanliness 

 of the gardens and rigorous cultivation of the soil. It becomes absolutely necessary 

 to ward oft a certain species of mosquito, which deprives the leaves of moist cellulose ; 

 to guard against the attack of borers, which peneti-ate the stem and destroy its 

 vitality ; and to exterminate caterpillars and butterflies. In the third year the trees 

 measure nine and one-half feet in height and are trimmed by sawing off the lower 

 branches, which in turn are stripped of their bark by blows from a wooden hammer. 



The bark is conveyed to the factory and there dried either by exposure to the 

 sun or in large furnaces, a process by which it loses one-third of its weight. When 

 thoroughly dry the bark is removed to a water mill, where it is reduced almost to a 

 powder. In this state it is packed in sacks of from 176 to 220 pounds and shipped to 

 Europe, where the quinine is extracted. A similar harvest may be reaped every 

 year thereafter until the tw elfth, in which the tree is cut down and used, even the 

 bark from the root being removed. Large plantations gather about 2,000,000 pounds 

 of dried bark annually, worth from ten to thirteen cents per pound. 



In conclusion, reference may be made to a recent letter from Dr. F. Franceschi, 

 of the Southern California Acclimating Association, Santa Barbara, Cal., in which 

 he states that in his opinion the climate of Southern California is too dry for most 

 cinchonas, whereas Northern California is too cold, which would be in harmony with 

 the suggestions made in this paper. It may also be stated that some efforts toward 

 the introduction of cinchonas into California are now being made at the San Francisco 

 Garden of Medicinal Plants, concerning which a report will be made latter.— The 

 Druggists'' Circular. 



THE ALKALOIDS OF DATURA ALBA. 

 In the flowers of Datura alba, Nees, a plant indigenous to China, Browne 

 found 0485 aud Hesse 0'51 per cent, of scopolamine, while from seed gathered in 

 Japan Shimoyama and Koshima, in 1892, isolated only hyoscyamine with the 

 exception of a very little atropine. In the course of his woik upon the mydriatic 

 alkaloids of the Solanacea', Professor Ernest Schmidt, of Marburg, has had occasion 

 to re-examine this member of the order, the results of his observations being briefly 

 as here described. Datura alba is stated by Dragendorff and other authorities 

 to be identical with D. fastuosa, and under the latter name Professor E. Schmidt 

 procured from Erfurt seed, of both the double blue and double white flowered 

 varieties, each of which was examined separately. The method of treatment 

 consisted in extraction of the crushed seed with alcohol at 30 to 40° C, evaporation 

 of the alcohol at gentle heat, solution in water, removal of fat by shaking with 

 petroleum ether, extraction of the bases from the aqueous solution, after addition 

 of sodium bicarbonate, by shaking with ether-chloroform, and their withdrawal 

 from the latter fluid by agitation with water acidulated with hydrogen chloride. 

 The alkaloids thus separated were nearly colourless and in a suitable condition 

 for precipitation as double gold salt, in which form they could be identified. The 

 small quantity of alkaloid taken up with the fat by petroleum ether was recovered 

 by extraction with dilute acid, and the main aqueous fluid from which the bulk 

 of the bases had been removed was further treated with ether and chloroform, 



