102 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[August 5, 1871. 
different descriptions which have been given of this 
fly, occasioned by the fact that some have regarded 
the ground colour of the elytra as black, with oclira- 
ceous yellow bands and spots; others treat the 
ochraceous yellow as the ground colour, with three 
black bands. O’Shaughnessy states that the Telini 
fly is common in the neighbourhood of Dacca, in 
the Hydrabad country and numerous other locali¬ 
ties. If procured before the mites have commenced 
its destruction, it yields, on an average, one-third 
more of cantliaridin than the Spanish ffy of the 
European shops. “ Some prejudice,” he says, “ exists 
against the article on account of its alleged excessive 
severity of action. This is solely owing to the pre - 
sence of a greater quantity of cantliaridin than that 
contained in the common fly. Diluting the tincture, 
and adding to the proportion of lard and wax in the 
plaster and ointment, perfectly assimilate the action 
of the indigenous and the imported insects.” 
Dr. Bidie* seems to doubt whether the insect found 
in the Mysore country was the same as Captain 
Hardwicke’s, as will be seen by his remarks : “ There 
is a species of Mylabris, very similar to Hardwicke’s, 
found in abundance in the Mysore country, of which 
the following are the characters:—head gibbous; 
eyes large, prominent, antennae with 11 joints, gra¬ 
dually ending in a club, and eleventh joint large and 
ovoid; thorax convex above, broader towards the 
abdomen, somewhat hairy; elytra crustaceous about 
the length of the abdomen, convex above, concave 
below, yellow, with three transverse, black, irre¬ 
gular, and undulating bands, that at the base divid¬ 
ing the yellow into two spots; wings thin, brownish, 
membranaceous, longer than the elytra, tips folded 
under; first 2 pairs of tarsi 5 joints each, last pair 
4 only, last joint in all furnished with pair of claws. 
When touched, the insect ejects from the joints of 
its legs large drops of a yellow oily fluid of an acrid 
nature. They are very destructive to all the species 
of Hibi sens , to lloses, etc. When gathered they 
should be killed by being plunged into vinegar, and 
then dried in the sun. The month of September is 
said to be the best time for collecting them, and 
they should be stored in close-stoppered bottles, 
with a little camphor to preserve them from the 
attacks of insects.” There is no good ground for 
supposing that there is any difference between the 
Mysore and Bengal insect. In the absence of speci¬ 
mens it is not easy to appreciate the doubts of local 
entomologists on closely allied forms. In both in¬ 
stances it seems that M. cichorei and M. plicilerata 
are confounded together, the latter being specially 
fond of such Malvaceous plants as the species of 
Sula and Hibiscus. 
Dr. Fleming says that this insect abounds in 
every part of Bengal, Baliar and Oude. In the 
rainy season, during which it is in its most perfect 
state, it is found feeding on the flowers of the various 
species of Hibiscus and Sida, and is readily distin¬ 
guished by the three transverse, undulated black 
bands on its yellow elytra, which constitute its spe¬ 
cific character. The flies should be gathered in the 
morning or evening, and immediately killed by ex¬ 
posing them to the steam of boiling vinegar. They 
should then be thoroughly dried by the heat of the 
sun, and afterwards put into bottles to preserve them 
from humidity. 
(To be continued.) 
EUCALYPTUS GUM. 
BY PROFESSOU T. WJESNER. 
The Austrian Pharmaceutical Society requested 
Professor Wiesner, of Vienna, to subject their col¬ 
lection of samples of Eucalyptus gum to an investi¬ 
gation, which lie did the more readily as no reliable 
information on the subject existed. 
The collection contained twenty different samples, 
some with the flowers and leaves of the plants. It 
had been received from Dr. Sonder, of Hamburg, and 
came from Dr. Ferd. Mueller, Director of the Bota¬ 
nical Gardens at Melbourne, to whom we are much 
indebted for our knowledge of the Australian flora. 
The apparent similarity of this gum-resin to 
gum-kino, the dried juice of the bark of Pterocarpus 
Marsupium, Mart., has led to the conclusion that 
it is a species of kino, like the extract of the wood 
of Coccoloba uvifera, L., Jamaican kino, or the 
gummy substance from the bark of Butea fromlosa , 
Boxb., Bengal kino. 
But well-known authorities in pharmacognosy have 
been inclined to doubt the kino-like character, and 
to look upon it as merely a gum-resin impregnated 
with colouring matter. It therefore became neces¬ 
sary, above all, to determine the constituents of 
the Eucalyptus gum; and the author finds the prin¬ 
cipal part of all samples to be nothing but so-called 
kino tannic acid. He obtained by Berzelius’s me¬ 
thod a red, amorphous substance identical in all its 
reaction with kino tannic acid. 
The gum was dissolved in water, and the floccu- 
lent, pale-red precipitate, obtained by adding sul¬ 
phuric acid, was washed until acid reaction of the 
wash-water ceased ; the precipitate was dissolved in 
boiling water, and separated after cooling from the 
insoluble matter. Tiie red liquid was evaporated 
in vacuo, and yielded thin, red, transparent lamime, 
which under the microscope appeared cracked and 
quite amorphous. The mass is slowly soluble in 
cold, but readily in hot water; the solution is ad- 
stringent. Alcohol, like hot water, gives a ruby- 
coloured solution; percliloride of iron produces a 
dirty green precipitate. The kino tannic acid ob¬ 
tained from kino itself gave with the iron salt a 
black-violet precipitate; but as the author is far 
from looking upon this acid as a definite chemical 
compound, he thinks he has proved the identity of 
the principal constituent of the gum under exami¬ 
nation with kino. He adopts the name Eucalyptus 
kino, and he avoids the expression gum, because 
gums are mostly soluble in alcohol as well as in 
water. In Bentliam and I’. Mueller’s ‘ Flora Austra- 
liensis,’ the many extracts obtained from Eucalyptus 
are always called gums; and in vol. viii. p. 185, it 
is even stated that the Eucalyptus species yielded 
gum-resins, and therefore they were named gum-trees. 
Pterocarpus kino contained, besides kino tannic 
acid, water, mineral substances with 1*3 per cent, of 
ash, a substance similar to pectine, catecliine and a 
little pyro-catecliine, but no sugar. Eucalyptus 
kino contained from 15 to IT per cent, of water; it 
gave only a trace of asli, and no sugar was found. 
Several samples contained a little catecliine. Pyro- 
catecliine appears always to be present. A pectine- 
like substance could not be detected in any of the 
samples, but several samples contained a substance 
soluble in water, similar to gum arabic. The juices 
of Eucalyptus yiyantca, Hooker, contained this sub- 
* Bidie in Madras Quart. Journ. Med. Sc. vol. v. p. 261, 1862. 
