430 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[November 30, 1872. 
and conflicting schemes proposed for effecting this most 
desirable object. For my own part I should he sorry to 
see any steps taken by the Society which would place 
our students in a position of dependence upon external 
pecuniary aid. If taken from the right class in society, 
I cannot see why they should not be as able to obtain a 
proper knowledge of pharmacy in the same way as the 
students in medicine, and of the other professions do. 
And although the expense of attending lectures may 
prevent a few from selecting pharmacy as their pro¬ 
fession, I can see no disadvantage in this, but on the con¬ 
trary, those who enter will be drawn from a class who 
have had a better preliminary education, able at once to 
pass the initiatory examination, and whose parents and 
friends are able and willing to provide the means to 
enable them to acquire a theoretical as well as practical 
knowledge of pharmacy. 
It appears to me that the only legitimate way in 
which the London Council could assist pharmaceutical 
education in the provinces, whilst preserving the inde¬ 
pendence of the student, would be by providing rooms, 
a museum, and library in convenient centres, and even in 
smaller towns, when an earnest desire existed to make 
good use of these expensive but necessary accessories. 
To go beyond this would tend to enervate rather than 
brace the generality of our students. Self-help and self- 
reliance should by every means be encouraged. As a 
rule what costs nothing is little valued. As you will have 
seen by the programme, an opportunity will be given 
this evening of having this important subject discussed, 
and it will be introduced by Mr.|Mackay reading a short 
paper expressing his own views on this vitally important 
sub j ect. 
No city out of London affords greater facilities for 
acquiring knowledge than does Edinburgh, and the 
arrangement made by our honorary secretary as to 
lectures should be taken advantage of to a much greater 
extent than has been the case in previous years. Mr. 
Mackay reports that at this date he has issued fourteen 
tickets for Dr. Macadam’s lectures, one ticket for analy¬ 
tical and three for practical chemistry. 
I am very _ pleased to see the example first set, I 
believe, in Edinburgh, of making it incumbent upon all 
youths to pass the Preliminary examination before the 
indenture is prepared, is now being acted upon in other 
places. It not only affords a test that the youth has 
been sufficiently educated to fit him for his future career, 
but it relieves him from a weight of anxiety which 
would otherwise press upon his mind until he passed this 
examination, and enables him at once to enter upon 
studies directly connected with pharmacy. I would also 
suggest that every indenture, in cities where'they can 
be obtained, should make it imperative for the apprentice 
to attend during its continuance a class of chemistry, 
materia medica, and botany, which, with the practical 
knowledge acquired in his place of business, should 
enable him to pass the Minor examination at the ter¬ 
mination of his apprenticeship. 
The Act of Parliament for preventing the adulteration 
of food, drinks and drugs, which passed on the 
10 th of August, renders it doubly imperative on our 
members to test carefully every drug and chemical before 
taking them into stock. The time has long since passed 
away when with some wholesale houses adulteration 
might be said to be the rule, especially as regards 
essential oils and powders. Still there are ample reasons 
for testing the more expensive class of chemicals. A 
good many years since a parcel of one of our most im¬ 
portant alkaloids, the muriate of morphia, upon the 
purity of which human life frequently depends, came 
into my hands direct from the manufacturer, and an¬ 
swered all the usual tests satisfactorily, except the test of 
experience. A lady, who had long been obliged to have 
recourse to it, having obtained her usual supply, after 
taking a few doses, declared it was adulterated, and was 
so positive that I placed a sample in the hands of one 
of our largest and best makers of morphia here, and 
although they were satisfied there was adulteration, still 
it was not discoverable by the usual tests. But upon 
separating the morphia, it was found to be adulterated to 
the extent of 25 per cent. The adulterant was eventu¬ 
ally proved by an eminent London maker to be white 
sugar. 
In 1842, the ‘Journal de Chimie Medicale’ offered four 
silver medals to be awarded to the authors who should 
furnish to the journal the best notices on adulteration 
not yet made known, and on the means of detecting 
them. I believe adulteration in America has been, and 
still is, practised to a great extent. In this country 
some articles of large consumption, such as tea and 
spirits, have been found in London and Glasgow to be 
frightfully adulterated. Nay, in some instances, dele¬ 
terious substitution was practised—neither tea nor spirits 
being found in the samples analysed. It is to be hoped 
the present Act will be so carried out as to greatly 
lessen, if not remove this evil. 
I would now submit to the inspection of the members 
some interesting vegetable products of the East, sent to 
me from Singapore by my friend Mr. Jamie, and I shall 
simply read extracts from Mr. Jamie’s letters, describing 
them in his own words. He writes, “ The first specimen 
is a stump of what I fancy is a tree-fern ( Cibotium ), which 
the natives on the east coast of the Malay peninsula, at 
a place called Sangora, use for the stopping of bleeding. 
It was brought to me by a gentleman who was in that 
direction prospecting for tin, etc., where it was exposed 
for sale in the Sangora bazaar.” 
In reference to this specimen I would refer you to two 
very interesting papers contributed to the 1st series of 
the Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. XVI. by Mr. 
Daniel Hanbury and Professor Archer. It is known by 
the name pengaiuar-cljambi or pulu. By some of the old 
authors it is considered to be the ‘Scythian Lamb,’ ‘ Fru- 
tex Tartarus,’ or ‘ Vegetable Lamb.’ “It was said to 
spring from a seed like a plant, and be attached to the 
earth by a root, whilst in its animal nature it rejoiced in 
a sort of flesh and blood, browsed upon the surrounding 
herbs by turning round upon its axis, or root, until,, 
having devoured all within reach, it perished a victim 
to hunger.” It has a place in the Dutch Pharmacopoeia. 
As a styptic, the hair of the stipes may be employed in 
the same way as cotton, wool, tow, or the nap of a 
beaver hat. The styptic action is supposed to be simply 
mechanical. Professor Archer says, “ The most striking 
feature is the abundant clothing of long, sparkling, 
golden-brown, moniliform hairs, with which the outer 
part of the stipes is thickly covered, and which, at the 
first glance, suggest for the drug an animal rather than 
a vegetable origin.” 
The second specimen “ is a bottle containing the hairy 
down of the leaves of a jungle-tree.” Mr. Jamie writes, 
“ I am very sorry indeed that my botanical education 
will not enable me to send you the regular orthodox de¬ 
scription, but I have done the next best thing, that is, I 
have sent you by post some of the leaves, from which I 
think any botanist will readily class it. As far as my 
knowledge goes, I should say it belongs to the Thalaifli- 
ferous class. The tree, or rather sapling, I took the 
leaves from was not high, but it grows to a large tree. 
This hairy down only grows on the young branches and 
leaves. As the tree grows so does the down leave it. 
To see the hairy down on the trunk of the tree just re¬ 
minds me of a hare’s foot; to the feel it is exceedingly 
soft, and if burnt puts one in remembrance of amadou 
burning, or somewhat like nitre paper, for it scintillates. 
It is a good styptic, and might become useful in stopping 
bleeding. I have prepared a little with carbolic acid, 
and use it for slight cuts, which it heals quickly. Under 
the microscope it has very much the appearance of cot¬ 
ton fibre. Whether it could be put to any economic use 
will greatly depend on whether quantities could be got. 
I have no doubt the tree grows all over India and Java, 
