VoL. i., No. 2. 
THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST OF AUSTRALASIA. 
11 
dismal condition of chemical teaching in Victoria can pluck 
up heart and indulge in a little sanguine hope. Much will 
depend on the calibre of the two new men who come out ; but 
as their selection has been placed in good hands, there is 
every prospect of a satisfactory choice. 
Tlie University is not to be congratulated on the arrange- 
ments which it has made for carrying on the chemical lectures 
till the new professor arrives. The laboratory assistant has 
been appointed to lecture under the supervision of Professor 
M‘Coy. How does one man lecture under the supervision of 
another ? Does he write out his lectures, and take them to him 
to see if they are correct ? The Council stultifies itself when- 
ever it tries to legislate on scientific matters. After doing the 
right thing in re-arranging the chemical work at the Univer- 
sity, to be true to its character, it must needs wind up with a 
piece of bungling. 
CHOLEBA AND WATEB FILTRATION. 
One of the clearest lessons of exj>erience of cholera epi- 
demics is tliat the disease is not infectious in the way in 
which scarlet fever or smallpox is infectious. Nurses and 
friends coming constantly in contact with the patient seem 
not more liable to attack than others. The researches of 
Koch, if they are fully confirmed by further investigation, will 
throw much light on the subject. It seems clear that the 
poison or infection consists of bacilli, minute rod-shaped 
organisms, that congregate most numerously in the lower 
bowel and swarm in the fiecal evacuations. It is only when 
these organisms are transferred to the bowel of other indivi- 
duals that the disease is conveyed. The most common source 
of infection is the drinking water, which under certain cir- 
cumstances is very liable to contamination with fsecal dis- 
charges. A single discharge, in favourable conditions, may 
carry the disease into hundreds of homes. Fortunately the 
bacillus in its ordinary (and hitherto the only observed) con- 
dition is easily destroyed. If dried up, if heated to the 
boiling point in the presence of moisture, or if placed in acid 
fluids, it is killed. Hence while the stomach is healthy 
and is secreting its acid gastric juice there is little fear of 
infection ; and at the same time very ordinary care is suffi- 
cient to make a cholera patient quite harmless to the rest of 
the woild. It is only necessary that all his evacuations and 
every thing they have touched should be immediately and 
completely disinfected. 
We have been speaking hitherto of the adult stage 
of the bacillus alone. Under certain conditions which 
check the vitality of the organism, reproduction by divi- 
sion of the little rod into two or more lengths, ceases, and 
spores or germs are produced, corresponding to some extent 
with the seeds of the higher plants. Unlike the adult form, 
these are very hard to kill ; they may be heated to 90 deg. G. 
(194 deg. F.), become dried, and float about in the air as dust 
without losing their vitality. They resist disinfectants and 
other influences that destroy the adult, which under suitable 
conditions they reproduce. But they are an exceptional form, 
very few are ever found in the air, and it is not these as a 
rule that carry infection. The spores of the supposed cholera 
bacillus have not yet been discovered. There are rare cases 
which it seems impossible to exiflain except under the hypo- 
thesis of spores, but infection can almost always be traced to 
the presence of the ordinary bacillus. 
These considerations naturally suggest certain precautions 
that might well be observed by healthy i)ersons during a 
cliolera epidemic. Fresh vegetables or fruit should not be 
eaten till they have been well boiled. No water should be 
drunk that is not above suspicion. Boiling to destroy the 
germs and filtering to remove suspended matter and impuri- 
ties of all kinds, will make the worst water a safe beverage. 
As regards filters we may be permitted to give one word of 
warning. Antmal charcoal, which is one of the most power- 
ful filtering media, very soon loses its properties, and in the 
course of two or three weeks instead of removing organic 
matter actually becomes a sort of hotbed for promoting its 
growth. 
One of the most remarkable filters ever produced was de- 
signed in Pasteur’s laboratory by its director, M. Chamber- 
land. It was designed in order to provide a ready means of 
obtaining constant supplies of water absolutely free from 
germs. At first required for purely scientific purposes, the 
facility with which it supplied germless water, water, that is, 
which could not under any circumstance convey infection, 
soon suggested its use for domestic and other purposes. It is 
already in the market in various forms, and can hardly fail 
to secure wide popularity. The principle of the filter is 
simplicity itself. It consists merely of a cylindrical jar of un- 
glazed or biscuit porcelain, closed at one end and turned upside 
down on a ring of enamelled porcelain, which forms part of 
the tube, and contains an aperture for the discharge of water. 
This tube is placed in another metallic tube which screws on 
to a tap soldered to the water-pipe. When the water is 
turned on it fills the space between the metal and the porous 
tubes, and filters slowly from the outside to the inside, parting 
with all solid matter it contains, including germs and spores. 
Water thus filtered has been proved to be absolutely free from 
germs. One filter containing a tube eight inches long by one 
inch in diameter, with a water supply under a pressure of two 
atmospheres, or 30 lbs. to the square inch, will provide ten 
gallons of filtered water i^er diem. The number of tubes is 
easily increased so as to supply any desired quantity. In 
places where there is no water supply, an elevated cistern that 
could be filled daily by pumping or other means, would supply 
the necessary pressure. It would, however, have to be raised 
sixty feet above the filter to supply the pressure named, though 
probably a single atmosphere, or 15 lbs. to the square inch 
would prove effective. The porcelain filtering mediiun becomes 
rapidly soiled, but is very easily cleaned by vigorous scrubbing 
and immersion in boiling water or baking in an ordinary oven 
to destroy any germs that may have penetrated the substance 
of th e pdrcelain. 
CUNJEYOI, ITS CURATIVE PROPERTIES. 
(Botanical name Coloca^ia macrorehica). 
It is well known in the parishes of Maroochy and Mooloolah, 
near Brisbane, Queensland, that if a person be stung by the 
stinging tree leaf, and the affected part rubbed by the 
Cunjevoi leaf for some time, say for an hour or so, the 
pain ceases and does not return ; whereas if the leaf is not so 
applied the i^ain from the sting will return for long after, 
when the affected part is wetted. A case was mentioned of a 
man having had his arm stung, and for a month afterwards, 
when wetted, the pain returned. In the case of the writer, 
when his hand was stung, the pain returned for about a fort- 
night. 
A new use has been found for the leaves of this plant. Mrs. 
Traill, who resides near Mooloolah, a woman over 40 years of 
age, accidentally fell over a galvanised iron tub, and braised 
her leg, but without breaking the skin. It then swelled, got 
discoloured and at last broke. She applied various remedies, 
but none healed it. Carbolic oil prevented it from getting any 
worse, but did not mend it. 
After two years suffering she was recommended by a friend 
to try Cunjevoi leaves ; that they would give pain in their use, 
but that they might effect a cure. Anyhow there would be no 
danger in using the same. This she did. They were prepared 
and applied thus : the midrib and strong fibres of the leaves 
were taken off, then the leaf was held to the fire to soften it 
and till it began to rise in small blisters and spit. It was then 
beaten till soft, and then apxfiied to the sore part of the leg. 
This was applied in this manner for about five or six weeks, 
when the part, where so applied, come out in a great number 
of small blisters full of matter. The i^ain attending the use of 
the leaf was at last so great that it could only be applied 
during the day, and Holloway’s ointment was used at night. 
In about three months after commencing to use the Cunjevoi 
leaves, the leg began to heal, and soon after it got well. Since 
healing, which took place about Christmas, 1H84, it has never 
given her any trouble, only she finds it weaker tlian the otlier 
leg. 
She is desirous that this information may be given to otlier 
sufferers, so that they may reap like benefits from its use. 
A man in the parish of Bribie has been cured by it of a long 
continued pain in his back. He had the leaves boiled, and 
ajjplied as a poultice thereto. No particulars as to length of 
time have been supplied. 
The Cunjevoi grows plentifully in the scrubs in the parishes 
