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BHITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
contained 8 per cent or nearly 31 times as much alkaloids as that of the neigh¬ 
bouring trees of ordinary Cinchona officinalis , nine-tenths ofthese alkaloids- 
being quinine, while in the others less than half was quinine, ho finer quality 
of cinchona bark for the quinine manufacturer has probably ever been met 
wit!} 
W1 M Lefort has rendered a good service by communicating to the Society of 
Pharmacy of Paris, the result of a comparative examination of the Ipecacuanha 
of Brazil and of that imported of late years from New Granada. It will be 
•perfectly in the recollection of many of you that since about *0 years, the price 
of ipecacuanha has advanced 200 to 400 per cent, a circumstance due partly to 
the increasing rarity of the plant and the necessity of seeking it m regions 
more and more remote, and partly, it is said, to the stock of the drug being m 
few hands, and the trade being thus virtually something of a monopoly. Bus 
high price of the Brazilian ipecacuanha has naturally stimulated a search tor 
the drug in other parts of tropical South America and has led to its collection 
in New^Granada. Yet the drug of New Granada is not precisely similar to 
that of Brazil nor is its botanical origin well established and questions have 
been raised as to whether it may be legitimately employed, some authors sup¬ 
posing it to be weaker , others stronger than the indubitable ipecacuanha of 
Brazil. To determine the question of strength, M. Lefort has endeavoured to 
ascertain how the two drugs compare in their richness m emetine. Pelletier 
and Dumas having shown that emetine produces an almost insoluble precipitate 
with tannic acid, M. Lefort availed himself of this fact to determine the amount 
of precipitate obtainable by this reagent from the soluble matter ot a given 
weight of root. The mean of his experiments showed Brazilian Ipecacuanha 
to yield 14-49 per mille of tannate of emetine and New Granada Ipecacuanha 
13-4 per mille. The curious fact that a nitrate of emetine is but very little 
soluble, though sulphate, hydrochlorate, phosphate and acetate are very soluble, 
afforded a means of checking these results, and warrant the conclusion that the 
Ipecacuanha of New Granada is rather less active than that of Brazil. A 
second paper by M. Lefort on the preparation, properties and composition ot 
emetine is well deserving the attention of those desirous of studying this alkaloid. 
The indigenous plants of which the herbaceous parts are in common use m 
medicine in this country, are few in number, but important by reason of their 
potency as remedies. The English druggist unlike his continental brother has 
no large herb-room to keep in order ; and the drying of herbs which he may- 
have to superintend, is generally performed on a very small scale, it at all. let 
when Henbane, Belladonna, Digitalis or Conium are required for making their 
respective tinctures, and the leaves have to be stripped from the stems and 
dried, the desirableness of such a process must have often seemed questionable. 
Such at least has been my feeling :—I have wondered whether the henbane 
with its leaves exuding a clammy secretion from every hair, and its heavy nar¬ 
cotic odour, can be in nowise deteriorated by being subjected for hours to the 
heat of a drying stove? Whether conium, the active principle of which is a 
volatile liquid, loses none of its potency by a similar process ? Ihe same ques¬ 
tions have occurred long ago to others, and the expressed juice ot certain me¬ 
dicinal plants, preserved by the addition of alcohol was recommende neai y 
thirty years ago by Mr. Edward Bentley and Mr. Squire. 
* The true Ipecacuanha-plant is not known to occur in New Granada ; for although m the 
description of the plants collected by Humboldt and Bonpland, f ephaehs Ipecacuanha : is 
enumerated as from the mountains of San Lucar in New Granada (Kunth, Synopsis Planta- 
rum. iii. 35), the indication must be regarded as doubtful. My friend M. Tnana, himse t an 
explorer of the country, has at my request sought for the San Lucar Cephaelis m the heroa- 
rium of Kunth in Paris, but found that it does not contain any authentic specimen ot that 
plant. 
