PITURI AND TOBACCO. 
-o- 
{Read before the Queensland Philosophical Society, by Joseph Bancroft , M.D., 
September 4>th , 1879.) 
o 
In March of 1872 I had the honour of reading before this 
Society an account of the first experiments made with the Pituri 
of our aborigines. I was so startled by the toxic energy of the 
substance that my paper was headed “ The Pituri Poison.” The 
details of that paper 1 need not now recount. For five years 
afterwards no clue could be found to ascertain what plant 
produced the Pituri that the Central Australian man held in 
such high estimation, though Mr. Bailey, our botanist, and 
Baron von Mueller, were put frequently on the rack by my 
inquiries and specimens transmitted. The plants, however, 
which Hodgkinson, the explorer, collected in 1877 were not 
"''ground into particles, as is the condition of the Pituri procured 
from the natives. So, after I had ascertained that these 
specimens had the same poisonous properties as the natives’ 
Pituri, they were forwarded by Mr. Bailey to Baron von 
Mueller, who at last was able to clear up the mystery and tell us 
that tbe plant was Anthocercis or Duboisia Hopwoodii. The 
learned Baron’s suggestion for me to examine Duboisia 
myoporoides led to the discovery of that curious mydriatic now 
establishing itself as a potent remedy in Ophthalmic practice in 
Europe. 
My second paper on “Pituri and Duboisia” relates these 
interesting circumstances ; but now with regard to Pituri some 
information has recently come to hand which it is the object of 
this paper to detail. 
On my trip to Europe lately I submitted the Pituri to 
Professor Fraser, of Edinburgh, the discoverer of the mydriatic 
property of Calabar-bean : later on I gave specimens to Dr. 
Sydney Ringer, the author of the celebrated hand-book on 
therapeutics ; and to the eminent Parisian chemist, Mons. Petit. 
The results of the experiments of Professor Fraser are not 
yet to hand ; Dr. Ringer’s article in the Journal of Physiology is 
commented on in the Lancet of December 21st, 1878. (The 
original paper I have not been able to get.) And Mons. Petit 
