470 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [January 2, 1888. 
in a month, but they certainly had not used two 
pints of tincture of strophanthus since it was in- 
troduced. 
Mr. Robinson remarked that the dose of tincture of 
strophanthus being so much less than that of digitalis, 
it would be necessary to multiply the quantity used 
by three in order to make a comparison. 
Mr. Collier did not think that in the last three 
weeks any strophanthus had been dispensed at all ; 
although at present there were, he should think, forty 
or fifty patients who were taking digitalis. 
The Chairman said this new drug might be very 
important, whether it was now used largely or not. 
It was being examined scientifically, and although 
all its uses might not yet have been discovered, the 
examination it was undergoing by different persons 
might lead to its use in some other direction. He 
heard Professor Faraday say once that he never re- 
garded the commercial value of anything he was in- 
vestigating, as generally there was no use to be found 
for it, but ultimately it during the investigation 
frequently became of great importance ; and this re- 
mark might possibly apply to strophanthus. It was 
a new drug, of which he knew very little himself, but 
as a number of people were experimenting with it 
he had no doubt a use would be found for it. 
Mr. Christy said he had now one or two hundred 
plants growing at Sydenham from all the different 
seeds he could collect commercially, and he had several 
different varieties growing from the same seed 
apparently, the leaves of which showed exactly the 
same characters as the leaves Mr. Holmes exhibited 
that evening. 
The Chairman then proposed a vote of thanks to 
Mr. Christy which was carried unanimously. 
Donations to the Museum. 
Mr. Holmes then drew attention to the following 
specimens on the table: — A very fine collection of 
Chilian drugs, presented by the Director of the Eoyal 
Gardens at Kew. Amongst them were several which 
might be regarded as replacing in Chili various drugs 
or herbs used in Europe. In this collection there was 
a specimen of the drug recently introduced into this 
country uuder the name of pichi, and which consisted 
of stems and leaves of the Fabiana imbricata, a plant 
which had the appearance in leaf of the common heath, 
but in the flower was quite different in structure, and 
was intermediate in appearance between an Erica and 
a Cestrum. The specimen of spurious chiretta on the 
table had been presented by Mr. Elborne, who detected 
it as not being the genuine article. It had a general 
resemblance to the true drug, but the taste was percept- 
ibly different, being much less bitter. The stem also 
was of a pale colour, and had four narrow-winged 
arylls, and the leaves, when they could be obtained 
entire, were evidently more obtuse. Amongst other' 
specimens from Kew was a bark of a tree from the 
Cape Colony, used for making bitters in the same 
way as Angostura is in this country ; this bark was 
derived from Gonioma kamassi. There was also a speci- 
men sent him by the Rev. A. J. Lennard, a Wesleyan 
missionary in Griqualaud of a root which was much 
used there for dysentery. The root appeared to be 
that of an umbelliferous plant, but as he had neither 
flowers nor fruit it was impossible to identify it. He 
was promised a large quantity of the root for chemical 
examination. There was also a specimen of sandal wood 
oil, which Mr. Umney had been kind enough to distil 
from a log of Fiji sandal wood exhibited at the late 
Colonial Exhibition, and subsequently presented to the 
Pharmaceutical Society. It yielded an unusual per- 
centage of an oil which appeared to be of good quality. 
Dr. E. Harry Feu wick had promised to experiment with 
it ami to report as to its therapeutic value as compared 
with the Indian sandal wood oil. Another specimen 
of sandal wood oil on tho table was sent him by Dr. 
Bidie, of Madras. Usually, sandal wood oil was distilled 
in a very rough way by the natives in India, and 
sometimes had fixed oils mixed with it, and not 
hiring satisfied that the specific gravity given in the 
text-books was correct, he had asked Dr. Bidie if he 
could procure him a sample distilled by a chemist in 
Mysore which could be guaranteed as perfectly pure. 
This specimen had been specially distilled for the 
purpose. The Curator said that he would be happy 
to hand a portion of it to any one who would under- 
take to determine its specific gravity, and any of 
the physical and chemical properties of the pure oil. 
A specimen of strophanthin was upon the table, 
but of course was only in small quantity. He next 
called attention to a very liberal and valuable collec- 
tion of rare chemicals, presented by Dr. Theodore 
Schuchardt, of Gorlitz ; amongst these were the new 
metal, germanium, also gallium, tellurium, crystalline 
selenium, keratin, large crystals of asparagin and vul- 
piuic acid and other specimens that might be interest- 
ing to chemists. There was also a specimen of mannite 
in crystals, finer than any previously had in the museum. 
Some gentlemen present would remember the paper 
by Mr. Braithwaite at the British Pharmaceutical 
Conference on "A Now Variety of Cantharides," in 
which it was stated that a sample of contharides 
sent to this country from Cape Colony, consisted of 
two species of Mylahris, M. bifasciata and M. lunata, 
the former being very active, and the latter contain- 
ing very little cantharidin. Mr. Braithwaite had pre- 
sented a sample of cantharidin obtained from the 
former insect. Dr. Schuchardt, who had since obtained 
some of these insects from the Cape, said that not 
only was the percentage of cantharidin larger than 
from any other source, but that it crystallized out 
in large crystals than he had hitherto obtained from 
Chinese cantharides. Mr. Williams had sent a speci- 
men of crystalline aconitine from A. Napellus, and 
of pseudacoriitine from A. ferox. Mr. Braithwaite 
had that evening brought in a specimen of piperine 
in fine crystals, which he and Mr. Farr had prepared. 
A valuable series of salts of one of the rarer of the 
opium alkaloids had been presented by Messrs. J. A. 
Wink and Co. ; another series of specimens had been 
presented to the Conference by Messrs. Merck of 
Darmstadt, and by Messrs. Von Heyden and Co., 
through Mr. Helbing ; these included all the new 
antipyretics, hypnotics and antiseptics. He would not 
detain the meeting by a detailed reference to their 
properties and uses, but would point out that two papers 
had been published in the Journal concering these new 
drugs, one by Mr. Helbing, the other by Mr. Dymond, 
the former being a paper read at the recent British 
Pharmaceutical Conference, the latter before the 
Chemists' Assistants' Association. The specimens of 
the oil of Pinus Pumilio, or mountain pine, well 
known as Carpathian balsam, upon the table, deserved 
notice from the fact that the use of the oil as an inhal- 
ation in throat diseases and external application ap- 
peared to be increasing. It was supposed to be superior 
to the oil of Pinus sylvestris, but that might be a matter 
of taste. It was, however, a difficult matter to obtain 
genuine oil of P. sylvestris; the oil sold under that 
name was often obtained from the wood of other species 
as a waste product in the manufacturing of paper from 
wood in Norway and Sweden. Another series of the 
specimens now exhibited consisted of herbs, roots, etc , 
largely used in this country, but which had hitherto 
been desiderata for the Museum. These had been pre- 
sented by Messrs. Potter and Clark. Finally he called 
attention to specimens of saccharin. For this product 
many new uses were daily being found. It was stated 
to be two hundred and fifty times as sweet as cane 
sugar coffee. He was told that 3 grams were sufficient 
to pleasantly sweeten a pint of tincture, and that it 
was two hundred and fifty times as strong as sugar. 
Although pleasant when diluted, it was not advis- 
able to taste' the saccharin in its pure state. — Pharma- 
ceutical Journal. 
Tea Boxes. — Dr. Meyer, lecturer in Forest Botany 
at Munich, now — we believe, on his way to Japan — 
recently made a tour in Nothern India, where he was 
made acquainted with the scarcity of suitable wood 
for the formation of tea-chests. To supply this want, 
Dr. Meyer recommends the planting of Oryptomeria 
japonica on the Darjeeling Hills, and Paulownia im- 
pcrialis on the plains, Terai, and Punjaub. — Gardeners? 
Chronicle. 
