248 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[September 28, 1872» 
THE LIBRARIANSHIP OF THE LONDON 
INSTITUTION. 
We understand tliat it is not the intention of the 
Board of Managers of the London Institution to fill 
up the vacancy occasioned by the decease of Mr. J. 
C. Brough, F.C.S., until after November. The 
salary is £200 per annum, with apartments, coals 
and light, and payment for whatever lectures may 
be delivered by the librarian. He is expected to 
reside in the house, and superintend as representa¬ 
tive of the Board. 
INDIAN OPIUM. 
With regard to the blight which has seriously 
attacked the poppy crops in the opium agencies of 
Behar and Benares, and which has been the sub¬ 
ject of some anxiety amongst the authorities in 
India, there seems to be great fears that it will 
prove to be of fungoid origin. At first it was thought 
more than probable that the blight might be at¬ 
tributed to the exhaustion of the soil, consequent 
upon constant poppy crops without any change or 
rotation, coupled with insufficient manuring. Dr. 
King’s recommendations on these points, which are 
contained in a letter addressed to the Secretary to 
the Board of Revenue, Lower Provinces, are well 
worth the attention of the opium cultivators, as there 
can be no doubt tliat a careful system of tillage 
would much enhance the value of the crops. He 
says, “ If starvation be the cause, the remedy lies 
in manure, and by far the best manure and one 
universally obtainable is cow-dung. This, however, 
is at present the chief fuel of the people in the drier 
districts, and little of it reaches the fields, except 
possibly in the form of ashes, the value of which, 
as compared to that of the unburnt dung, is but 
small. Whether this ‘ blight ’ be really a special 
disease or not, it could do no harm were the local 
opium offices to be instructed to exhort the ryots to 
burn as little cow-dung as possible, in order that 
they might save it for manure, and also to collect 
the filth and sweepings of their villages and put 
them on their fields. Natives have a great many 
fancies about the application of manure. They 
think, for instance, tliat only rotten cow-dung is of 
any use, and that if applied fresh to the fields this 
manure will burn up the crops. They should be 
disabused of such notions. It may not be quite out 
of place to draw the attention of the Board in this 
letter to the progressive exhaustion of the soil which 
is going on in the drier parts of the country. An 
Indian field has little rest. In the rotation of culti¬ 
vation there is no intervention of a fallow year, or 
of one or two years in grass, as in England. In 
fact there is really no rotation. Mixed crops are 
grown in one field, and that often for years in succes¬ 
sion. Efficient manuring is unknown, and many 
fields are never manured at all. The best manure 
is used as fuel, and, I fear, must to a great extent 
continue to be so until cheap firewood is supplied to* 
the people. Trees of all sorts other than fruit- 
bearers, are ruthlessly cut down, and none are 
planted in their places, natural reproduction being 
relied upon. But natural reproduction is impossible 
as long as goats and buffaloes are allowed without 
let or hindrance to browse down any seedlings that 
may by chance appear. From the rapid disappear¬ 
ance of all timber, the dependence of the people on 
dung for fuel is daily increasing. It is, I think, 
obvious to any one looking carefully into the matter 
that this state of things cannot last very much 
longer. The only wonder is that it has lasted until' 
now, and that the soil has not long ago refused to 
yield. The poppy plant being a gross feeder, its 
cultivation is one of the first that may be expected 
to fail from the cause above indicated. As has al¬ 
ready been mentioned, I do not say that this ‘ blight’ 
is really the result of exhaustion, but I do not think 
it unlikely, and until the cause of it can be settled, 
I think it would be wise to insist on higher cultiva¬ 
tion, and on every ground I consider it is advisable 
for Government to delay no longer the establish¬ 
ment of fuel plantations in all the barer dry dis¬ 
tricts.” 
Notwithstanding Dr. King’s excellent advice, as 
we before said, we fear there is too much reason to 
believe that the blight is referable to a fungoid 
growth. Some poppy leaves which have been sent 
home and submitted for examination to an eminent 
mycologist have been proved to be attacked by Cla- 
dosporium lierbarum and a species of Perorwspora , 
perhaps P. arborescens., which attacks Papaver 
llhceas in this country. 
THE COLLAPSE OF CUNDUEANGO. 
Whether this plant be a species of Gonolobus 
Mctrsdenia, or any other genus of Asclepiadere, it 
seems nearly to have run its course in a pharma¬ 
ceutical point of view. From a report of the Bri¬ 
tish Vice-Consul at Guayaquil we leam that it has 
caused a great amount of speculation in its native 
country. The Government, having received favour¬ 
able reports of cures effected by it from medical 
men in the interior, hastened to send samples to 
Europe and the United States in order that its 
curative properties might be tested by competent 
men. Several speculators, and orders to buy it 
arrived from the United States, and the price was 
quickly run up to 100 dollars per quintal. The 
reports of its use in the hospitals of Europe and 
the United States proved that, unfortunately, it is 
not the much desired specific for curing cancer, 
and its value consequently fell to almost nothing. 
Several commercial firms in New York have de¬ 
clined to receive consignments of it unless the 
freight is prepaid, as they cannot sell it for enough 
to cover the cost of its carriage from Guayaquil to 
New York. 
