September 14, 1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
205 
morphine, which is accordingly viewed as a derivative 
of dimorphine. 
2M = «I,0 + (M, — 4H 3 0) = 4H„0+C 63 H m N 4 0 8 . 
The other is a tetra base, and is formed by this reaction— 
4M = 2H 2 0 + (M 4 - 2H 2 0) = 2H 2 0 + C 136 H 14S N 8 0 22 . 
This latter base gives rise to new derivatives when treated 
with hydrochloric or hydriodic acid ; it is quite as power¬ 
ful an emetic as apomorphine, and being obtainable in 
much larger quantity, may possibly come into use in 
medicine. According to the experiments of Dr. Stocker 
it does not seem to produce so much after-depression as 
apomorphine. Hitherto it has been administered by 
hypodermic injection, but it could probably be con¬ 
veniently given as a pill. 
A large number of the compounds examined have not 
yet been named, on account of their complex composi¬ 
tions. The term diapotetramorphine has been given to 
the last described base, on account of its having the com¬ 
position^ of tetramorphine minus two proportions of 
water, M 4 —2H 2 0. Adopting the same kind of nomen¬ 
clature, ordinary apomorphine would be termed tetrapo- 
di morph ine, having the composition of dimorphine minus 
four proportion of water M 2 — 4H 2 0. 
. A large number of other products have also been par¬ 
tially obtained, and are now in course of examination ; 
it is hoped to extend the investigation of the opium alka¬ 
loids to some of the lesser known ones, such as narceine 
and papaverine. In reference to this point, the author 
cannot conclude without acknowledging the extreme 
kindness and liberality of Messrs. Macfarlane and Co., of 
Abbey Hill Chemical Works, Edinburgh. During the 
course ol these researches these gentlemen have furnished 
gratuitously large quantities of several alkaloids, in¬ 
cluding the rarer ones, and amounting in the aggregate 
to several pounds weight of materials of the highest 
degree of purity; without the help thus liberally 
bestowed, the investigations would have been impossible. 
K0EG0ED.* 
BY MR. GEORGE ALEXANDER K.EYWORTH, HASTINGS. 
A plant growing very abundantly in Bushmanland, 
on the borders of Namaqualand, South Africa. Mules 
and horses there, through drinking brackish water, have 
inflammation of the stomach. The remedy is a pint of 
decoction of. this plant (made by boiling a handful 
of it in a quart of water to a pint) with half a teacupful 
ol brandy. It acts as a slight purge. The natives 
chew it for the same purpose. Chopped up and mixed 
with oats, etc., for cattle, it serves as a condiment. 
Koegoed is pronounced Koukwood ; “goed,” in Hotten¬ 
tot Dutch, means “wood.” 
The specimen exhibited was brought to this country 
last year by C. J. Small, Esq. The plant has been 
examined by B. J. Austin, Esq., member of the Reading 
Microscopical Society, whose report is added. I am 
not aware that the plant has previously been much no¬ 
ticed. Its therapeutical value also remains, I believe, 
to be ascertained. 
Mr. Austin says, “ After looking carefully, and more 
than once, over the specimen you sent, in hope of find¬ 
ing a blossom that would assist in determining the 
relation ol the plant, I could find none; and, indeed, 
have lound but one leaf, which it would be rather pre¬ 
sumptuous to set down as belonging to the plant just 
because it was met with among fragments. The pieces 
seem to me to have been soaked in salt water ;f the 
* Read at the Brighton meeting of the British Pharma¬ 
ceutical Conference, August 14th, 1872. 
t This arises from the brackish soil of Namaqualand, 
impregnated with nitrate of soda, which whitens it. 
taste is saltish, and, indeed, crystals of salt form in the 
distilled water in which I softened some of the root fibres. 
“ The fibrous nature, too, of the root—for the specimen 
seems to consist wholly of roots*—may be due to this. 
The. wood zones are quite separated, and so also is the 
cortical exterior. This has made it very difficult to cut 
sections.. All the leaf-fragments too are completely 
skeletonized. I have, however, made the best sections 
possible, and find the usual pitted ducts in the wood. 
The chief peculiarity is the thickened margin of the 
wood cells in the outer portion, similar to what is seen 
in Avoody fibre of root of ginger, and a delicate spiral 
structure exists in some of the cells. There appear to 
be no definite starch granules, although there are some 
cells which appear to be of an albuminous character. 
These are numerous, but show no trace of striae, nor 
does polarized light produce any effect. These cells 
are probably the remains of a milky juice, and to them 
I attribute the readiness with which the root tinges 
water of a brownish-yellow. 
“ Raphides abound in the central part of the root, and 
they vary in shape, some being acicular, others pris¬ 
matic with flat ends, and others with oblique ends. 
“ The only leaf I found presented no very marked fea¬ 
ture, the venation showing it to be exogenous, which, 
of course, guides but little.” 
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY AND THERAPEUTICS.f 
BY A. W. HOFMANN. 
(Continued from p. 163.J 
I will here trace some of the advantages which have 
accrued to therapeutics from the study of chemical 
metamorphoses. There is an entire series of bodies 
which formerly could only be obtained in small quantity, 
often in an indifferent state of purity, and which were 
extracted with more or less difficulty from natural 
sources. But the study of chemical metamorphoses has 
revealed methods for now preparing these substances in 
a state of perfect purity, in considerable quantities and 
at a moderate price. Some of these discoveries belong 
to the most interesting episodes in the history of the de¬ 
velopment of organic chemistry. 
During the last thirty or forty years a great proportion 
of chemical labour has been devoted to the study of 
alcohol; it might be said, that during this period the pro¬ 
gress of organic chemistry has been principally repre¬ 
sented by the study of alcohol and its derivatives, 
and there are two names, those of Liebig and Dumas, 
honourable mention of which must not be omitted in 
speaking of this epoch. In conjunction with Peligot, 
Dumas discovered in wood spirit a new alcohol, possess¬ 
ing properties analogous to those of spirit of wine or 
ethylic alcohol, and which he classed by the side of the 
latter under the name of methylic alcohol. Then che¬ 
mists commenced to realize that in ethylic and methylic 
alcohols they had the prototypes of a vast class of sub¬ 
stances, the most important among organic compounds. 
This idea gave a new direction to research, and the chase 
was commenced with an ardour that has not relaxed to 
the present day ; every part of organic chemistry has been 
explored with the greatest care, but it was principally 
from the saccharine bodies, whence was derived the 
alcohol of wine, that it was hoped to obtain new alco¬ 
hols. Research so energetic did not long remain with¬ 
out result. In an oily liquid obtained in distilleries as 
* Mr. Small does not remember seeing any leaves or 
flowers. The roots are creeping and matted upon the sur¬ 
face of the ground. He considers the effects to bo “ slightly 
narcotic or sedative, slightly stimulant, stomachic and car¬ 
minative.” 
•f Lecture delivered at the Medical Chirurgical Institute of 
Berlin. 
