Am.  Jour.  Ph-arm. 
Jan.,  1889. 
Massoi  Bark. 
37 
tion.  The  acid  filtrate  from  the  atropic  acids  (see  above)  contains 
ecgonine  and  a  very  small  quantity  of  a  complex  mixture  of  acids 
consisting  principally  of  s-isatropic  acid,  but  in  which  benzoic  acid 
was  recognized.  Anhydroecgoniue  is  also  sometimes  present.  The 
quantities  of  ecgonine  and  isatropic  acids  are  approximately  in  accord- 
ance with  the  equation  given  above. 
Boiling  baryta  decomposes  the  amorphous  alkaloid  in  a  similar 
manner  to  hydrochoric  acid,  but  the  ecgonine  is  partially  decomposed. 
Other  bases  occurring  with  cocaine  also  yield  ecgonine  when  treated 
with  acids.  The  author  has  succeeded  in  preparing  benzoylecgonine 
from  ecgonine. 
MASSOI  BARK. 
By  E.  M.  Holms,  F.  L.  S.,  Curator  of  the  Museum  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Soci- 
ety of  Great  Britain. 
Some  specimens  of  the  barks  known  in  the  East  under  this 
name,  and  which  were  recently  presented  to  the  Museum  of  the  Soci- 
ety by  Professor  Van  Eeden,  of  Haarlem,  may  possibly  serve  to 
throw  some  light  upon  a  product  concerning  which  some  little  con- 
fusion still  exists  in  commerce. 
The  name  of  Massoi  appears  to  be  given  to  three  distinct  barks, 
which  are  identified  by  Dr.  F.  Hekmeyer  as  the  products  respectively 
of  Cinnamomum  xanthoneuron,  Bl.,  Cinnamomum  Kiamis,  Nees,  and 
Sassafras  Goesianum,  T.  and  B.  The  second  is  also  called  by  the 
Malays  "  Kayu  manis  sabrang." 1 
The  first  of  these,  as  received  from  the  Haarlem  Museum,  occurs  in 
pieces  about  3  to  4  lines  thick,  with  a  thin,  uneven,  outer  dark  layer, 
which  is  seen  under  a  lens  to  be  composed  of  stratified  cells ;  the  layer 
beneath  this  is  granular,  the  white  sclerenchymatous  bundles  being 
irregularly  arranged  in  a  direction  parallel  to  the  surface,  except  near 
the  inner  surface,  where  they  form  two  nearly  regular  lines.  The 
portion  next  the  inner  surface  is  darker  in  color,  forming  rather  more 
than  one-third  of  the  thickness  of  the  whole  bark,  and  shows  nume- 
rous thin  medullary  rays.  It  is  this  portion  of  the  bark  that  appears 
to  be  most  oily  and  aromatic.    The  odor,  when  observed  at  a  distance, 
1  The  name  "sabrang3'  distinguishes  it  from  the  bark  Kayu  manis  (Cinnamo- 
mum Parihenoxylon) ,  which  is  also  used  by  the  Malays  in  colic  and  diarrhoea- 
Kayu  manis,  as  represented  in  the  late  Colonial  Exhibition  in  London,  differs 
from  all  the  above-named  barks  in  having  a  somewhat  camphoraceous  taste. 
