130 
REVIEWS. 
as a fish poison. Tn the present papers the stem only is dealt with ; 
no evidence of the presence of any alkaloid was obtained, and the 
poisonous action of the bark is attributed to some constituent of that 
portion of the resin it contains which is soluble in chloroform. 
J. c. w. 
The Seeds of Brucea sumafrana. 
(Chemical Examination of Ko-sam Seeds (Brucea sumatrana , 
Roxb.), by F. B. Power and F. H. Lees. Wellcome 
Chem. Res. Laboratories, 1903. 
This little shrub is a common weed near Kandy and elsewhere, 
introduced from the Malay Archipelago. Lately a great amount of 
interest has been aroused in it as a remedy for dysentery, a purpose 
for which its seeds have long been used by the Javanese. The nature 
of the active principle has been supposed to be quassin, but this the 
authors show is not the case ; they isolated two bitter principles 
hitherto unknown, and requiring further research. 
J. C. W. 
