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THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND, TRANSACTIONS 
[August 19, 1871. 
rounded at the apex.—Oliv. Ent. iii. p. 47. t. 2. f. 11 
a b ; Billb. Mon. t. v. f. G-10. Meloe oculatus, 
Thunb. N. Ins. Sp. vi. p. 114. M. plagiata, Pall.. 
Icon. t. E. f. 3 a. Head black, somewhat hairy, punc¬ 
tate ; antenna} black, the six ultimate articulations 
tawny. Thorax scarcely longer than broad, black, 
rather hairy. Scutellum black, punctate. Elytra 
three times as long as broad, roughly punctate with 
four elevated longitudinal lines, shining, black. 
Spots at the base rounded, ocliraceous, and two 
bands of the same colour, the one before the middle 
somewhat arched, and the hindmost, below the middle, 
the space between chestnut. Breast and abdomen 
black, somewhat hairy, punctate. Feet black. 
Native of the Cape of Good Hope and Bengal. 
In the variety found in Bengal the basal spot forms 
a short band. The size is equal to that of M. pha- 
lerata, from which it is not always easy to distin¬ 
guish some of its forms. Although this is not re¬ 
corded in the Indian Pharmacopoeia, it is doubtless 
mixed indiscriminately with other species. 
Channelled Mylabuis, Mylabris Jiunieralis, 
Walk.; black, elytra with two humeral furrows, two 
basal yellow spots, and two angular bands ; length 
9 to 11 lines.—Walker, Ann. Nat. Hist. Ser. iii. 
vol. ii. p. 285. 
The typical insect described by Walker is in the 
British Museum Collection, and was from Ceylon. 
This is, however, one of the indigenous species cited 
in the Pharmacopoeia of India. 
Oriental Mylabris, Mylabris orientalis, Mars. 
We cannot find that this species has been de¬ 
scribed ; it is included in Gemminger and Herold’s 
catalogue, and appears to have been one of the 
species recognized by Marseul in his ‘ Monograph,’ 
submitted to the Entomological Society of France 
in 1870, with the citations of Dejean’s Catalogue III. 
ed. p. 244. The locality quoted is the East Indies, 
and it is enumerated in the Pharmacopoeia of India 
as one of the indigenous vesicants. Beyond this 
we can furnish no information or description, and 
must rest content with waiting until the promised 
publication of Marseul’s ‘ Monograph.’ 
Mylabris proxima? 
One of the species cited as indigenous hi the 
Pharmacopoeia of India; but, beyond this, we find 
no mention of the name, or any description answer¬ 
ing thereto. 
This completes the list of species belonging to the 
genus Mylabris , of which we have any certain know¬ 
ledge that they are employed as vesicants hi Asia. 
When the Goleoptera of China and India are better 
known, it may be presumed that there, as in the 
Archipelago, other equally good vesicants will be 
discovered. 
PRESERVATION OF TINCT. KINO FROM 
GELATINIZING. 
BY j. w. wood. 
Among all our tinctures, perhaps there is not one 
so liable to deteriorate by exposure, or by long keep¬ 
ing, as tincture of kino, made hi accordance with the 
U. S. Pharmacopoeia ; its well-known property of 
gelatinizing in a short time—a property which yet 
remains to be investigated—being thereby rendered 
inert, precludes it from being as extensively used as 
its virtues would seem to warrant. 
This property renders it inadmissible when we 
desire a reliable tincture, to prepare it in large 
! quantities. 
The Pharmacopoeia formerly directed it to be pre¬ 
pared with dilute alcohol as the menstruum; but 
later it was thought to be of advantage to increase 
the proportion of alcohol to two-thirds: yet it is 
doubtful if there was much gained by this change. 
I would therefore submit the following mode of 
preparation, which I consider, from the experience I 
have had, will meet with the desired end, and up to 
the present time results do not seem to disprove it. 
It is as follows:— 
Kino hi fine powder, giss 
Alcohol - 835, fsviij 
Water f§iv 
Glycerine, f^iv. 
Mix the alcohol, water and glycerine together, 
and having mixed the kino with an equal bulk of 
clean sand, introduce in a percolator and pour on 
the menstruum. 
This menstruum seems to thoroughly exhaust the 
drug of its astringent principle, and also makes a 
nice-looking preparation. 
Some which I made on the lOtli day of July, 1870, 
was exposed to the influence of the atmosphere, the 
stopper of the bottle containing it having been re¬ 
moved for several months, so that it had evaporated 
to at least two-thirds; yet it remains as good as 
when freshly made, without any apparent tendency 
to gelatinize. 
The menstruum might be somewhat modified, per¬ 
haps with advantage, as, for instance, by using pro¬ 
portionally less alcohol and more glycerine and 
water, or vice versa. At any rate I will give it for 
what it is worth; adding at the same time the sug¬ 
gestion—and it is only a suggestion—that the same 
menstruum be employed in preparing tinct. catechu, 
which, though not so liable to gelatinize as tinct. 
kino, yet sometimes does so.— Amer. Journ. Phar¬ 
macy. 
PHARMACY IN THE REPUBLIC OF 
CHILI. 
Dr. J. N. Ullersperger, of Munich, furnishes some 
interesting information on the state of pharmacy in 
Chili, from which we learn that the war of 18GG 
against Spain had a most unfavourable influence 
upon it. The President of the Sociedad de Farmacia 
—which, it seems, represents science in all its 
branches—reported to the Minister that the Society 
had endeavoured to keep up its connection at home 
and abroad, and also to commence several investiga¬ 
tions ; but the latter progressed but slowly, as the 
subsidies voted by the national congress were ap¬ 
plied to war purposes, in consequence of which the 
publication of the journal had also to be suspended. 
Nevertheless, the society managed to keep open 
their laboratory, to discuss and to ripen a plan for 
raising the pharmaceutical studies to the level of 
the demands of modern science, and finally to take 
preliminary steps for the compilation of a Pharma¬ 
copoeia. The Society had also continued to take 
meteorological observations in different parts of the 
republic; they had received several memoirs, col¬ 
lected information on several plants of the country, 
and otherwise shown active signs of their existence; 
