586 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[January 21, 1871. 
of the soap. Another vegetable soap, which has been 
found excellent for washing silk, etc., may be thus ob¬ 
tained :—To one part of the cake add one and a half 
part of the before-named Agave Karatn, macerated in one 
part of boiling water for twenty-four hours, and with 
the extract from this decoction mix 4 per cent of rosin. 
In Peru, the leaves of the Maguey Agave are used 
instead of soap ; the clothes are wetted, and then beaten 
with a leaf which has been crushed ; a thick white froth 
is produced, and after rinsing the clothes are quite clean. 
The pulpy matter contained in the hard kernel of a tree 
called locally Del Jahoncillo, is also used there for the same 
purpose. On being mixed with water, it produces a 
white froth. In Brazil, soap is made from the ashes of 
the bassena or broom 'plant (Si da lanceolata ), which 
abounds with alkali. There are also some barks and 
pods of native plants used for soaps in China. The soap 
plant (Amole) of California, Phalangium pomeridianum , is 
stated by Mr. Edwin Bryant to be exceedingly useful. 
The bulbous root, which is the saponaceous portion, re¬ 
sembles the onion, but possesses the quality of cleansing 
linen equal to any olive soap manufactured. 
From a l apsr read before the Boston Society of Na¬ 
tural Histoiy, it appears that this soap plant grows all 
over California. The leaves make their appearance 
about the middle of November, or about six weeks after 
the rainy season has fairly set in ; the plants never grow 
more than a foot high, and the leaves and stalk drop 
entirely off in May, though the bulbs remain in the 
ground all the summer without decaying. It is used to 
wash with, in all parts of the country, and, by those 
who know its virtues, it is preferred to the best of soap. 
The method of using it is merely to strip off the husk, 
dip the clothes into the water, and rub the bulb on them. 
It makes a thick lather, and smells not unlike brown 
.soap. 
At St. Nicholas, one of the Cape Verde Islands, they 
make a soap from the oil of the Jatropha Cur can seeds, 
and the ashes of the burnt papaw-dree leaf. The oil and 
ashes are mixed in an iron pot heated over a fire, and 
stirred until properly blended. When cool it is rolled 
up into balls about the size of a six pound shot, looking 
much like our mottled soap, and producing a very good 
lather.— The Journal of Applied Science. 
PHYSOSTIGMA VENENOSUM.* 
The Physostigma venenosum , or ordeal bean of Old 
Calabar, has of late been used medicinally. Its peculiar 
and powerful poisonous properties were long ago made 
known by Drs. Christison and Balfour, but we owe the 
fuller knowledge we now possess of its powers to the 
elaborate investigations of Dr. Fraser of Edinburgh, Dr. 
Robertson and other observers. The active principles of 
the bean quickly enter the blood and gradually produce 
general paralysis, which is due, according to Dr. Fraser, 
to. changes effected in the spinal cord. In an animal 
poisoned by the bean the reflex functions of the cord are 
■destroyed—“ It acts on the spinal cord by destroying its 
power of conducting impressions.” This results “ in 
muscular paralysis, gradually extending to the respira¬ 
tory apparatus, and producing death by asphyxia; and 
in a rapid paralysis of the heart, causing death by syn¬ 
cope. It also causes paralysis of muscular fibre, striped 
and unstriped.” The knowledge obtained by these in¬ 
vestigations led to the employment of the bean as a 
remedy in tetanus, and a considerable number of cases 
have been treated by it. Dr. Fraser has a high opinion 
of its value, and has reported twelve cases of tetanus 
treated by it, of which nine recovered. Many other cases 
of its administration in this disease have been repoi’ted 
in the various medical journals, English and foreign, and 
* Abstracted from a series of papers on the “ Progress of 
Therapeutics,” published in the Medical Times and Gazette. 
in not a few of these instances the patients have un¬ 
doubtedly recovered ; but the results, on the whole, have 
scarcely supported Dr. Fraser’s estimate of the remedial 
value of the drug, while in some cases it has been sus¬ 
pected of doing harm rather than good, and of increasing 
the patient’s danger by its paralysing action. * It has been 
observed, too, that in most of the cases of recovery the 
disease lasted about a month, just as in cases successfully 
treated with atropia, hydrate of chloral, and other reme¬ 
dies. The physostigma has been employed in other ma¬ 
ladies. It is indisputably a weapon of great power, and 
must be used with great care and watchfulness : at the 
same time, in such a disease as tetanus, it must, as Dr. 
Fraser has insisted, be employed early. The Pharmaco¬ 
poeia contains two preparations, the powder and an ex¬ 
tract ; the first may be given by the mouth, in doses of 
from one to four grains for an adult; the extract, subcu¬ 
taneously, in doses of one-tenth to one-third of a grain 
and more, the dosage being regulated by the effects. 
The physostigma has also the peculiar properties of 
causing very rapidly contraction of the iris, and altering 
the power of accommodation of the lens, and it has been 
largely used and proved of great value in ophthalmic 
practice. Its action on the iris was first pointed out by 
Dr. Fraser, f and first made use of by Dr. Argyll Robert¬ 
son. j; A very interesting communication on the subject, 
by Mr. J. Soelberg Wells, containing a description by 
Mr. Bowman of the effects of a solution of the bean on 
his own eya, was published in the Medical Times and 
Gazette in 1863.§ It may be applied by touching the 
inside of the eyelid with a solution, one minim of which 
equals four grains of the bean, or by placing within a 
minute portion of paper which has been saturated with 
a strong solution. 
GLYCERINE SOLUTIONS OF PEPSIN AND OTHER 
SUBSTANCES. 
BY LIONEL S. BEALE. 
In Nature of December 29th, Professor M. Foster calls 
attention to the method of making glycerine extract of 
pepsin pursued by Von Wittich, and remarks with 
reason that the means hitherto adopted for preparing 
pepsin for medical purposes are clumsy and inefficient. 
There is, however, one exception, a mode of preparation 
which has long been in use, and which is by no means 
inefficient. This will be found to possess some practical 
advantages over the process of extracting the fresh mu¬ 
cous membrane with glycerine, while from it the glyce¬ 
rine solution can be prepared quite as pure and clear, 
and as strong as by maceration. 
As long ago as 1858 (‘ Archives of Medicine,’ vol. i. pp. 
269-316) I described a method of obtaining the active 
digestive material from the pig’s stomach, which answers 
perfectly, and has been employed in practice ever since. 
It simply consists in quickly drying the mucus expressed 
from the stomach glands upon glass plates. || The dried 
mucus is then powdered and kept in stoppered bottles. 
It retains its properties for years. Eight-tenths of a 
grain will dissolve one hundred grains of coagulated white 
of egg. 
Now, from this powder is easily prepared by solution 
in distilled water a perfectly clear and colourless diges¬ 
tive fluid of great activity, which can he readily filtered. 
* Mr. Holtko use’s case, Clinical Society’s Transactions , 
vol. ii.; and Medical Times and Gazette, 1869. 
f “ On the Characters, Actions, and Therapeutic Uses of 
the Ordeal Bean of Calabar.” Graduation Thesis. August, 
1862. J Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, 1863. 
J J Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, 1863. 
§ “ On the Effects of the Solution of the Calabar Bean on 
the Pupil,” etc. Medical Times and Gazette, vol. i. p- 500, 
1863. 
|| This pepsin is prepared for medical purposes by Messrs. 
Bullock and Reynolds, 3, Hanover Street, Hanover Square. 
