THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
207 
study pi teiJy, as this, although chiefly devoted to the ‘gum trees,’ of which the 
colony R o justly proud, also includes a variety of other products ; not the least 
'interest!) is the Victorian opium, which appears — I have not yet had time to 
examine analytically — to be of very fine quality. The plants from which it is 
derived • tall poppies anyhow, as the dried stem now before me testifies, being 
nearly s» :*n feet high from root to capsule. 
Tin TLancet has reason to believe that the eminent pathologists, Sir James 
Paget, 1 tessor Burdon Sanderson, and Dr. Lauder Brunton, have, together with 
Sir H. scoe, who initiated the matter, consented to serve on the Commission to 
inquire to M. Pasteur’s method of inoculation for hydrophobia ; and that the 
Goverm it intend to seek in addition the services of a few distinguished physicians, 
includin; Sir W. Jenner. As soon as the details are arranged the Commission are 
expected 1 proceed to Paris, personally to investigate M. Pasteur’s proceedings and 
their res ts. 
Pei {ring to the Colonial Exhibition, the British and Colonial Druggist 
complim .ts the Australasian colonies upon the completeness, attractiveness, and 
practical -alue of their several displays. “Victoria, perhaps, leads the way with 
some 11 10 items, shown by about 500 exhibitors, the President of the Melbourne 
Commis n (Mr. Joseph Bosisto, M.P.), who has already arrived in England, being 
himself sponsible for a magnificent collection of vegetable products and prepara- 
tions, in uding, of course, Eucalypti, with which his name has so long been 
specially ssociated.” 
A c uious case came before the Liverpool County Court recently, when an 
elderly 1 ily sued a dentist for £5, moneys paid for a set of false teeth, which were 
alleged be useless, as they would not “bite” properly. The plaintiff, in order 
to prove er case, fitted the teeth into her mouth, and exhibited their action to his 
Honour. The defendant stated that everything possible had been done to render the 
teeth sa' factory, and that the reason they would not bite was that the plaintiff had 
not heh her mouth straight when the impression was taken. The case was 
adjourn to enable the parties to come to an amicable arrangement. 
In ; article on the cultivation of tobacco in England, the British and Colonial 
Druggis vvrites : — “ England should not wait for her younger children to give her 
lessons this kind of material progress, especially when the moral is such an 
obvious le, but even redundantly-fertile Australasia is not satisfied to let things 
stop as y are in this respect. We understand that Victoria has within her breast 
a very idable ambition ; she has a notion that she could grow (amongst other 
things) Cnglish peppermint ’ and 4 Mitcham lavender,’ and she has not only a 
notion u n that subject, but she is going to have a good try at it before very long.” 
Fr: the Pharmaceutical Journal we learn that Senor C. Torretti, an 
Italian, ho was formerly professor of chemistry and pharmacology in the 
Medical Faculty of La Paz, Bolivia, has published a letter in M Ferro 
Carril , Santiago, alleging that the honour of discovering cocaine does not 
belong Niemann, who is reputed to have first prepared it in Germany in 
1859. was, he says, isolated in the “humble” laboratory of la Botica y Dro- 
gueria liviana, by his predecessor in the directorship of that establishment, 
Senor zi, in 1857, at the suggestion of the celebrated Austrian traveller, 
Tschud. This he knows to have been the case from manuscripts left by Senor 
Pizzi, a it can be confirmed by Herr Tschudy and by Dr. Aquiles Beid, an 
old and ell-known resident in Valparaiso. 
It generally conceded (writes the American Pharmacist) that the patent 
medicin nan is not at all modest when he comes to speak of his own wares, but we 
lately s; an advertisement of a much-heralded plaster that puts the Liver Cure 
ads. to blush. Here is an extract from it .— “ It is composed of vegetable gums 
