422 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [November 30 ,1873. 
the amount is quite insignificant, for I obtained 
from a pharmacien in the town a specimen, being 
part of some he had purchased from a peasant the 
previous season. 
Hoping for more information and that I might at 
least obtain better specimens, I went to Corigliano, 
a small town, the mountains around which produce 
according to Murray’s Handbook, “ the finest 
manna in Calabria,”—a fact without doubt perfectly 
true a century ago. Here I was told that no manna 
is now brought in for sale, the collection having 
entirely ceased, I called on five pliarmaciens in the 
town : three of them had in stock no manna what¬ 
ever ; the fourth had some which he had purchased 
in Naples, but the fifth (Signor Giuseppe Guicli) had 
a box containing a pound or two of manna of the 
country, of which he kindly gave me a sample. He 
told me that it was old, none being now collected. 
This manna is a moist, semifluid, saccharine mass, 
of a dirty yellowish grey. 
On the 5tli May (1872) I reached Cosenza the 
the capital of the province, situated at the head of 
the valley of the Crati, in passing through which 
I observed a few trees of Omits. The locality was 
anciently renowned for manna. Here I repeated 
my inquiries in several pharmacies, but in vain. 
At length I found one, the proprietor of which showed 
me some soft manna which he said had been got 
near Cotrone. I discovered also in another phar- 
macie manna of two qualities, scelta and in pasta, 
both of which the pharmacien stated he had bought 
of peasants who had collected it at Rossano. The 
collecting of manna about Cosenza was quite ignored 
by most of the persons whom I asked for information. 
Those who had any acquaintance with the drug 
declared it was no longer an object of industry in 
that part of Calabria. One pharmacien asserted 
that the collection of manna had been prohibited for 
the last six or seven years. 
The course of my journey having led me to Messina, 
I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of 
Mr. Robert Sanderson, a merchant of that city of 
long standing, whose business in Italian produce 
includes the shipment of manna. On asking this 
gentleman about Calabrian manna, he informed me 
he was ignorant of such a commodity; and on my 
showing him some of the drug in the soft form in 
which I had procured it at Cosenza, he expressed 
much surprise, and declared it to be unlike any 
Sicilian manna he had seen. 
No specimen of Calabrian manna was contributed 
to the Italian Exhibition held at Florence in 18G1; 
but there appear to have been three samples from 
Rogliano in the London Exhibition of the following 
year.* 
From what I have already stated, the conclusion 
is I tliink irresistible,—that Calabrian manna as an 
article of commerce has practically ceased to exist, 
and that the collection of manna in that part of 
Italy is on the verge of extinction. 
I regret that when at Rossano I was unable to 
visit the woods of Ornus which undoubtedly exist 
in that vicinity. But the habits of the Calabrian 
peasantry are such that it is impossible for travellers 
to quit the high-roads without personal danger. 
The better to inform myself of manna-industry, 
and especially that I might become well acquainted 
* They were contributed by Signor Giovanni Morrelli of 
Rogliano, Calabria. 
with the tree, I afterwards paid a visit to the manna 
plantations at Capaci near Palermo. I also in¬ 
spected the trees which are cultivated at the Istiluto 
Agrario Castelnuovo near that city*, and in the 
park of La Favorita. But as the time of my visit 
(May 16-22) was not that for collecting the drug, 
I have no details of particular novelty to communi¬ 
cate. 
Respecting the manna-ash itself, however, I wish 
to say a few words. It has often been stated, as in 
the British Pharmacopoeia (for which in this case 
I presume the Prodromus of De Candolle is the 
authority), that there are two species of manna-ash, 
namely, Fraxinus Ornus , L., and F. rotundifolia. 
Many modern writers on pharmacology admit but 
a single species, F. Ornus, L., of which F. rotundi¬ 
folia is stated to be a cultivated variety peculiar to 
Calabria and Sicily, and propagated by grafting. 
I do not think either statement satisfactory. F. 
Ornus is very variable even in its wild state, and 
in the same locality. As to the tree [which is 
cultivated in Sicily, and of which I have ex¬ 
amined specimens from all parts of the islandf, 
it likewise presents great variations, but no special 
form that can be singled out as deserving the 
name rotundifolia, or even that can be recog¬ 
nised as par excellence a cultivated variety. It is 
true that the tree in some manna plantations is oc¬ 
casionally grafted, certain trees yielding a poor 
supply of saccharine matter being thus replaced by 
others of a more productive nature. But I observed 
no grafting at Capaci where the trees are grown like 
coppice oak in England, and where such a plan of 
treatment would therefore be hardly worth the 
trouble. 
[The paper was illustrated by several specimens 
of Calabrian manna procured at Rossano, Corigliano 
and Cosenza, and by a large suite of botanical speci¬ 
mens of Fraxinus Ornus, L., and a stem ot the 
latter showing the incisions for manna.] 
EXAMINATION OF SOME SAMPLES OF 
FERRUM REDACTUM4 
I3Y A. N. LITTLE. 
Ferrum Redactum, defined in the British Phar¬ 
macopoeia to be “ metallic iron with a variable 
proportion of magnetic oxide of iron,” is described as 
a fine greyish-black powder soluble in hydro¬ 
chloric acid, with evolution of hydrogen. Ten grains 
digested at a gentle heat in an aqueous solution of 
fifty grains of iodine, and fifty grains of iodide of 
potassium, leave not more than five grains undis¬ 
solved, which should be entirely soluble in hydro¬ 
chloric acid. 
In consequence of the difficult nature of the 
preparation of this substance, the pliarmacopoeial 
authorities have permitted an adulteration, or rather 
a sophistication, with the magnetic oxide of iron to 
the extent of 50 per cent. The quantitative test ot 
the Pharmacopoeia is based upon the insolubility of 
this oxide in a strong solution of iodine and iodide of 
# A most interesting agricultural college founded by 
private munificence, where 22 lads are studying scientific 
and practical husbandry under the able directorship of Pro¬ 
fessor Inzenga. 
f Many of them courteously presented to me by Professor 
Todaro of the Botanical Garden, Palermo. 
J Read at a meeting of the Bristol Pharmaceutical Asso¬ 
ciation, Nov. 15, 1872. Bee post, p. 437. 
