40 
president’s ADDRESS — SECTION B. 
(laurotetanine) possessing tetanic action on animals, should stimulate 
our chemists to a thorough investigation of some of the undoubtedly 
interesting Australian species belonging to this Natural Order, The 
alkaloid is contained in quantity in the bark of Lit sea chrysocoma , BL, 
a reason why early attention should be directed to our Litseas , but I 
have no doubt other allied genera will amply repay investigation. 
A plant to which Dr. T. L. Bancroft has given a good deal of 
attention is Cryptocarya australis, Benth. The bark is persistently 
bitter, said to be due to the presence of an alkaloid which crystallises 
from its solution in stellate masses of acieular crystals, and which is 
believed to closely resemble curarine. I refer to Dr. Bancroft’s papers 
themselves, * * * § and would only remark that he has made out a strung primd 
facie case for a thorough chemical examination of' the bark, which will 
probably bring kudos to the chemist who undertakes it. Our other 
Cryptocarya barks should, in my opinion, be examined at the same 
time. 
JEuphorbiacece. — M. Ottow has found in Phyllan thus Nurri , from 
Java, an intensely bitter, poisonous principle called phyllanthin. 
Phyllan thus is so common in Australia, both as regards species and 
individuals, that the substance might be further investigated by an 
Australian student. A bitter neutral principle called pseudochiratin 
was found by Dymock, Warden, and Hooperf in an Indian 
Phyllan thus. 
Another plant yielding a bitter bark, often used as a tonic by 
people in New South Wales and Queensland, is Petalostigma quadri - 
local are , P. v. M. FalcoJ many years ago found it to contain “ a 
camphoroidal essential oil, and an indifferent bitter principle belonging 
to the glucosides.” Dr. Joseph Bancroft stated that its bitterness is 
due to a peculiar tannin. Dr. T. L. Bancroft informed me that it is 
physiologically inert, or practically so. It would be well to have the 
bark carefully analysed, and the result would probably be interesting. 
The kernels should also be examined. A correspondent regularly uses 
them, saying they form one of the best tonics he knows of. 
Piperacece .' — We are indebted to the late Dr. Joseph Bancroft 
for drawing attention to the gigantic Native Pepper- vine ( Piper 
Novcc- Holland ice, M/iq.), from a therapeutic point of view. His son 
(Dr. T. L. Bancroft), continuing his father’s experiments, cautiously 
says he has t% ' not made sufficient advances to speak of it as a valuable 
drug for any particular purpose.” I believe it to be the case that the 
plant has not been subjected to chemical investigation, an omission T 
trust will be remedied before long. 
NARCOTICS. 
I have no recent work to report in connection with the principal 
narcotic of the aborigines — viz., pituri ( Luhoisia Hoptvoodii , v. M). 
Liversidge’s research, alluded to under “ Drugs,” remains the most 
recent one, and is all but exhaustive. Langley and Dickinson § have 
* Proc. R.S. Qd.j iv. (18S7) : “Research into Pharmacology of some Queensland 
Plants” (1888) — Trans. Intercol. Med. Cong., 1800. 
+ Pharmacographia Indica., vi., 207. 
X Watts’ Diet., vi., 1st Suppl., 904. 
§ “The Physiological Action of Pituri and Nicotine” — Journ. Physiol., xi., 265. 
