626  Botany  Bay  or  Eucalyptus  Kino.  {AmDe0c%aTrm* 
snake  poison  is  heated,  its  activity  is  diminished  and  in  some  cases 
destroyed,  the  globulin  being  coagulated  and  the  peptone-like  body 
decomposed. 
The  results  obtained  may  be  thus  summarized  :  The  toxic  princi- 
ple of  the  jequirity  resides  in  two  proteids  present  in  the  seeds — a 
para-globulin  and  au  albumose,  which  practically  possess  the  same 
toxic  properties.  The  activity  of  both  these  proteids  is  destroyed  by 
moist  heat.  The  snake-venom  resembles  abrus-poison  in  chemical 
composition,  in  its  power  of  producing  local  lesions,  of  reducing  body 
temperature  and  rendering  the  blood  fluid  after  death,  and  to  some 
extent  in  the  effect  on  it  of  moist  heat.  Abrus-poison,  however,  is 
much  less  active  than  snake-venom.  The  fatal  dose  of  snake-venom 
varies  according  to  the  species  of  snake  from  0*0021  gm.  to  0*000079 
gm.  per  kilo,  of  body  weight,  whilst  abrus-poison  stands  at  globulin 
0*01  gm.,  albumose  0'06  gm.  per  kilo,  of  bodily  weight. 
BOTANY  BAY  OR  EUCALYPTUS  KINO. 
By  J.  H.  Maiden,  F.  L.  S.,  F.  C.  S.,  Etc.,  Curator  of  the  Technological  Museum 
of  New  South  Wales,  Sydney. 
The  first  part  of  the  author's  interesting  paper,  published  in  Phar. 
Jour,  and  Trans.,  September  21,  states  that  in  Australia,  kinos  are 
largely  used  in  rural  medicine,  on  account  of  their  astringent  proper- 
ties, aqueous  solutions  being  almost  invariably  made.  Some  of  them 
are  used  by  the  settlers  for  ink,  or  for  staining  leather  black,  the  pro- 
cess simply  consisting  in  boiling  the  kino  in  an  iron  saucepan.  The 
commerce  with  Europe  and  America  in  eucalyptus  kino  has  never 
been  important.  A  good  kino  of  uniform  composition,  offered  by 
Mr.  Bosisto,  is  collected  from  E.  rostrata. 
Wounding  the  bark  stimulates  the  flow  of  kino  in  some  cases,  but 
such  a  practice  does  not  appear  to  be  systematically  resorted  to. 
Usually  it  is  collected  from  the  outside,  which  accounts  for  its  occa- 
sional admixture  with  particles  of  bark,  but  sometimes  it  is  contained 
between  the  concentric  layers  of  the  wood  (chiefly  in  the  case  of  E. 
Gorymbosa).  In  the  latter  case  it  has  communication  with  the  outside 
of  the  tree,  though  frequently  the  passage  is  blocked  with  indurated  kino, 
which  has  to  be  removed  to  enable  the  store  inside  to  be  drawn  off. 
The  eucalypts  are  popularly  known  in  Australia  as  "  gum  trees," 
but  certain  species  from  the  structure  of  their  bark  are  called  "  iron 
harks"  and  "  stringybarks."    The  "gums"  are  locally  distinguished 
