40 
THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
[Dr. Squibb says that confusion would be avoided and a great improvement 
made by omitting belladonna leaves from the Pharmacopoeia altogether, having 
the root only officinal and all preparations made from that. Probably no one 
will question the superiority of the root over the leaves, and a saving of what 
would otherwise have little market value should be a consideration of little 
importance when the quality and strength of medicinal preparations are at 
stake. However, it may be urged by those financially interested in belladonna 
leaves that no constant ratio can exist between solid extracts and fluid 
preparations, owing to a variable amount of extractive influencing the quantity 
of finished product in one case and not in the other, and that therefore good 
leaves may properly be utilised in the manufacture of solid extract (and, 
perhaps, even a standardised tincture). The leaves being not so desirable as 
the root for the manufacture of atropine, the natural result, were the leaves 
discarded by the Pharmacopoeia Commission, would be a material increase in the 
price and demand for the root. 
It might also be argued that due regard to the comparative doses for the 
preparations of belladonna at present officinal, as given by Dr. Squibb, would 
obviate any dangers rendered possible by the pharmacopoeial recognition of two 
parts of the belladonna plant. Any objection to Dr. Squibb’s proposition to 
omit the leaves from the Pharmacopoeia it would seem must be made from a 
commercial standpoint. It remains to be seen, however, whether any medical 
arguments can be advanced in favour of the officinal retention of belladonna 
leaves.] 
The price of camphor in China rose to 26dol. per picul, it is supposed on 
account of the cholera. 
A simple but ingenious method of obtaining beeswax in a clean form direct 
from the comb is recommended by a correspondent of the Gardeners * Chronicle 
(14th November, p. 623). This consists in melting the wax in hot water in a 
copper; a hoop that will fit into the copper is covered with a cheese cloth and 
fastened down into it, below the level of the surface of the water. The 
melted wax rises to the surface through the cloth, and the fire being then 
allowed to go out, the wax is found on the top of the water in a perfectly clean 
cake. 
At a meeting of the Edinburgh Botanical Society, held 12th November, Mr. 
Lindsay, curator of the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens, stated that he had 
succeeded in germinating the seeds of the celebrated eucalypt growing at 
Whittingham, East Lothian. This is the first time, it is believed, that home- 
grown seeds have germinated. The Whittingham eucalpyt, now at least forty 
years old, was stated by Bentham to be E. viminalis , but as the result of a 
careful examination Sir Joseph Hooker has determined it to be JE. Gnmiii. 
At the same time Mr. Lindsay exhibited two seedling eucalypts, namely, 
E. coccifera and E. pauciflora . These have been grown from seeds brought 
from Australia by Dr. Stewart, who states that he found these species 
surviving a keen frost which killed all surrounding eucalypts, a fine E. globulus 
fifteen years old being amongst the number. 
Cocaine has been used by Dr. Prior, of Bonn, with a certain amount of 
success in the treatment of whooping cough. For this purpose a solution of 15 
to 20 per cent, is used to paint the fauces and upper part of the larynx so as 
to produce complete anaesthesia in these parts. Inhalation of a 20 per cent, 
solution did not prove so successful. According to Dr. Labrie this treatment 
will reduce the fits of coughing in one day from fifteen or twenty to five or six, 
