VoL. ii., No. 1 
THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST OF AUSTRALASIA. 
21 
We trust that some Australian chemists will take up the 
manufacture of drumine and other j^harmaceutical prepara- 
tions of the plant. It ^Yill he a disgrace to the continent if 
European and American pharmacists have to send for con- 
signments of the dried herb, and make preparations of their own. 
The first chemist who anticipates a demand and gets his i^re- 
parations approved by competent authorities here will 
assuredly find his enterprise profitable. 
The experiments of Dr. Reid throw a curious cross-light on 
an official report on Euphorbia Drummondii issued by the 
New South Wales Stock department. 
Some of New South Wales stock inspectors reported that 
the plant was poisonous to sheep. Hr. Alex. Bruce, Chief 
Inspector of Stock, instructed Mr Edward Stanley, F.R.C.V.S., 
Government Veterinarian to investigate the question. That 
gentleman reported from Yanko on March 31 of last year that 
he had tried some experiments, first suggested, we believe, by 
Baron Ferd. von Mueller. Seven sheep were yarded up, and 
fed. with. Eu^ihorhia Drumiunidii &lone. The weed was gath- 
ered fresh every day, and given to .the sheep morning and 
evening by three methods : — 1st. In its natural state. 2nd. 
Chopped into small pieces and moistened with water, it was 
administered with the thumb and fingers, put on to the roof 
of the mouth, was slightly chewed and swallowed, being fol- 
lowed by the little water left in the pan ; none was wasted. A 
pound was found to be too large a feed at once, and half a 
pound night and morning was taken with ease and comfort, 
and evidently relished. It has an agreeable odour, like new 
hay, and a slightly bitter taste. 3rd. Made into a decoction 
like tea, by steeping 21b of weed in one gallon of boiling 
water, and covering it up one to two hours, drain off, and use 
when cool ; it has a brownish colour, fragrant smell, and by 
no means unpleasant taste. They were fed on it for a week 
without showing the slightest sign that it was deleterious or 
in fact anything but nutritious. Mr. Stanley concludes that 
at least in autumn it is perfectly harmless, and the absence 
of any medicinal effect from its use in such large quantities 
throws doubt on its possession of any poisonous jproperties 
whatever. On the contrary it seems to be a nutritious weed, 
and may prove of value as fodder as it is widely distributed, 
hardy and drought resisting. It is nevertheless certain that 
many sheep have perished after eating it. These deaths are 
attributed to hoven. It is said they only occur in sheep that 
have been starving ; these engorge themselves with the weed 
when they have an opportunity, and the fermentation of the 
mass of vegetable matter in their stomachs causes distension 
•of abdomen with mechanical pressure on the vital organs and 
death from suffocation. A tincture and an extract prepared 
by Mr. Stanley have been handed to Professor Watt, and it 
will be interesting to learn if he has experimented with them. 
The results of Mr. Stanley’s experiments when compared 
with those of Dr. Reid show that there are still many doubt- 
ful points to be cleared up. 
EUCALYPTUS OIL. 
(By William Sutherland, M.A., B.Sc.) 
History. 
If national importance regulated the choice of the particular 
specimens of the fauna or flora of a country which should 
figure as representative in its coat of arms, the emu and kan- 
garoo should certainly have to make way for the eucalypt in the 
Australian device, for when emus and kangaroos no longer 
exist but as names and as museum rarities, the eucalypt will 
be waving in undiminished forests, and contributing an in- 
creasing supply to the national wealth. It is now almost 
•exactly a hundred years since the genus received its present 
name from the French botanist L’Heritier, although before 
that the surgeon of one of Captain Cook’s expeditions had 
named it aromadendrum. Strange to say, for more than 
70 years after its discovery it possessed only a subordinate 
scientific interest ; new species as specimens were obtained 
were duly named and described by botanical enthusiasts, but 
did not attract much more attention than if they had been 
mere herbs. The practical pioneer colonist seized upon the 
eucalypt timber as the only wood at hand, and had no time to 
trouble himself with comparative estimates of its merits or 
possible utilisation of bye products. It was not till Baron 
Ferdinand von Mueller, then Dr. Mueller, visited Australia to 
study the eucalypts in their native home, and finally settled 
to his long labours in the cause of Australian botany, that the 
remarkable economic importance of the great Australian 
genus of forest trees was made known to the world. Under 
the stimulus of Baron von Mueller’s representations as to the 
great possibilities latent in the essential oils pouring out in 
enormous volumes from the vast leaf surface of the wide Aus- 
tralian forests, and pouring out merely to waste, Mr. Bosisto 
thirty years ago began that series of laborious practical re- 
searches which he has continued and extended ever since, till 
he has made quite secure the foundation of a not unimportant 
national industry. 
The introduction of Eucalyptus products into general phar- 
macy was due in the first case to the reputation the tree had 
acquired for its anti-malarial action, and the whole pharma- 
ceutical history of Eucalyptus does not extend further back 
than twenty-five years. Exactly how or by whom the con- 
clusion was arrived at that the Eucalyptus can mitigate or de- 
stroy malarial influences is not-known, but The fact was early 
noted by explorers and settlers that Australia over a very wide 
extent of its area was free from those intermittent "fevers 
which are a real scourge in Italy and Spain, and which, 
afflicted English colonists in all other parts of the world, 
whether in America, Africa, or India. The Spaniards were 
encouraged by some successful experiments at the Cape of 
I Good Hope to attempt to acclimatise the tree in some of the 
I fever stricken tracts along the coast of the Mediterranean, and 
with such apparent success in the popular estimation that the 
tree is now known in Spain as the “ fever tree.” France was 
the next country to turn its attention to Eucalyptus, in the 
hopes of helping to make something of its miserable colony of 
Algeria. Large numbers were reared from seed sent by Baron 
von Mueller, at the experimental stations in Algeria, and 
planted in certain particularly unhealthy localities, since 
which time the genus has been quite a pet with the Paris 
Acclimatisation Society on account of the good reports that 
have been given of its performances in that desolate country. 
After this between the patronage of the French Society and 
Baron von Mueller’s eloquent advocacy of the splendid proper- 
ties of the genus, the culture of Eucalyptus spread with great 
rapidity all round the Mediterranean, many plantations reach- 
ing the dimensions of small forests. But in Italy the new 
specific for malarial fever was taken up with the greatest en- 
thusiasm, for that country is a very heavy sufferer, the annual 
expenditure on quinine constituting a severe drain on the 
peasantry in large tracts of country. In the flat marshy 
plains of the Campagna near Rome, the mortality was so 
heavy that the district was fast tending to become a howling 
wilderness, and the less cultivation that was carried on in the 
affected district the more did the pestilential area tend to 
spread and encroach on the safe country round its margin. 
The thoughtful Baron von Mueller took advantage of a visit 
that the late Archbishop Goold paid to Rome to transmit a 
■ large supply of Eucalyptus seed to Rome, where it was given 
I to a French order of monks who had been forced to abandon 
! their monastry of Tre Fontane in the centre of the Campagna. 
j The first thirteen monks who undertook the planting out of 
I the seedlings succumbed to the fever ; to such a pitch of 
j deadliness had it attained in that rank uncultivated soil. As 
soon as the trees began to grow a marked amelioration was 
reported, so that the Italian Government undertook the plant- 
ing of Eucalyptus on a large scale in several of the malarial 
districts. At the present date the number of eucalypts grow- 
ing in foreign soil could be counted by the million, scattered 
all over the world, from North and South America to Europe 
and Africa, and to Asia, where on the Nilgiri Hills in India 
splendid government and private plantations have been made. 
Thus the eucalypt is by far the most important indigenous 
' natural product that Australia has given to the rest of the 
world, and although not grown like the cinchonas for its phar- 
maceutical value, its cultivation abroad has been due almost 
entirely to its hygienic reputation ; but in addition to its sani- 
tary importance, it possesses an easy pre-eminence over all 
other genera of timber trees for the wonderful rapidity of its 
growth, and for the variety ofwoods obtainable from it. Thus 
according to one French observer a plantation of eucalyptus 
will give as good a yield of timber in ten years as an equal 
one of oaks will furnish in a century, a statement fully con- 
firmed by the measurements of the curator of the Nilgiri nur- 
series, who found Eucalyptus globulus to grow 25 feet in 18 
months, a record not nearly equalled by any other forest tree. 
All the eucalypts are of rapid growth, but the possession of 
