October 29, 1870.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1870. 
Communications for this Journal, and boohs for review, etc., 
should be addressed to the Editor, 17, Bloomsbury Square. 
Instructions from Members and Associates respecting the 
transmission of the Journal should be sent to Elias Brem- 
BiDGrE, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square, W.C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, London, W. Envelopes to be endorsed “ Bharm. 
Journ .” 
THE EFFECTS OF DRUGS. 
For some thousands of years tlie question, How 
medicine cures disease ? has rather afforded scope 
for the exercise of fancy than it has admitted of 
Being considered by the aid of precise observation 
and direct experiment. Even at the present day we 
have scarcely any acquaintance with the rational 
connection doubtless existing between the individual 
nature of a medicinal agent and those physiological 
■effects which we know it produces. Our knowledge 
in this respect is almost entirely empirical, and it is 
•only of late years that some glimmer of light has been 
thrown upon this obscure though important subject. 
Dr. B. W. Richard sox, one of the foremost pioneers 
in tins field, has for some years devoted his attention 
to studying the physiological action of various defi¬ 
nite substances, and he has already obtained results of 
great interest, which he makes known in occasional 
courses of lectures. On another page we give some 
account of an introduction to such a course. It may 
be asked by some acutely practical people, What has 
this to do with Pharmacy ? Is it not rather mere 
.scientific speculation ? We do not think so, and 
with all regard for the practical requirements of 
trade, we believe that subjects such as those dis¬ 
cussed by Dr. Richardson ought to receive the care- 
fid consideration of pharmacists. 
We believe also that their exposition rightly finds 
a place hi this Journal, inasmuch as it is the official 
organ of the body which is charged with the duty of 
raising the standard of pharmaceutical competence. 
For that reason it should be a leader of opinion as 
well as of practice, and since the art of healing is so 
capable of expansion, its handmaiden pharmacy 
should not refuse to look beyond the narrow bounda¬ 
ries of the present, nor confine her attention solely to 
the range of past experience. 
A few months ago Chloral was a substance altoge¬ 
ther outside the pale of pharmacy ; the mention of it 
in a pharmaceutical journal might have been cen¬ 
sured as unpractical; but since then it has become 
perhaps one of the most important items of the materia 
medica. Who can say which of the substances now 
known only to theoretical chemistry, may be the next 
io take place with opium and bark and calomel as a 
3R> 
daily necessity for the physician, as a material to be 
used hourly by the pharmacist ? 
The question as to whether quinine exists in 
plants other than the Cinchona: has often been raised, 
and it has just received another answer in the nega¬ 
tive. The bark of the Hymenodictyon, excelsum, a 
large forest tree, has long been in repute in India as 
a valuable native febrifuge, its properties being due, 
it was thought, to the presence of quinine. It was, 
moreover, formerly considered one of the Cinchona , 
and known under the name of C. excelsa. Mr. 
Broughton, the Government Quinologist at the Oota- 
kamund Plantations, has recently examined the 
fresh bark of this tree, and finds that the bitter taste 
is owing to the presence of asculin, the principle 
found also in the bark of the liorse-chestnut-tree. 
The bark when dry becomes almost tasteless, owing 
to the asculin coming in contact with decaying or¬ 
ganic matter, and being changed into asculetin. Cu¬ 
riously enough, both these barks, which contain 
asculin, have been recommended for the same pur¬ 
pose. As, however, asculin is much dearer, less 
plentiful, and less efficacious than quinine, it is not 
likely to come into use in India. We may also men¬ 
tion that a very interesting tree (the bark of which is 
also said to contain quinine) grows in Central Africa, 
forming large forests; it is used largely by the 
natives in cases of fever. Dr. Welwitsch, who dis¬ 
covered, and figured it in his ‘ Sertum Angolense,’ 
wider the name of Corinanthe paniculata, is endea¬ 
vouring to obtain a supply of the bark for chemical 
analysis and trial. The tree is remarkably cinclio- 
naceous in habit. 
It appears from a recent article by Dr. Pott in 
the Zeitschrift fun die Gesammten Natuncissen- 
schaften that extracts of flesh and fish have been 
prepared in Java and Sumatra for several centuries. 
The raw material, after being boiled and commi¬ 
nuted, is placed in a press, the expressed juice being 
exposed to a moderate heat till it assumes the con¬ 
sistence of syrup. The extracts so prepared all 
possess an intensely saline taste, arising from the 
accumulation of organic salts caused by their great 
concentration. Upon analysis they were found to 
contain mere traces of gelatine and to give no indica¬ 
tion of albumen. One sample contained 20 - 9 water, 
IGA ash. The dry extract contained 9 54 nitrogen. 
CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS’ FUND ON BEHALF 
OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED IN THE PRESENT 
WAR. 
Since the publication of the last list of subscribers 
some further contributions have been received. W e 
propose closing the Fund on the 30th November 
next, and shall then give a final list. 
