^VembeMloS1'}     Drug  and  Medicinal-Plant  Investigations.  419 
The  above  facts  will  happily  obliterate  the  proposed  titration  of 
the  mydriatic  alkaloids  in  an  assay  of  henbane  preparations,  using 
iodeosin  as  indicator,  whereby  Prof.  E.  Schmidt  obtained  0  286  per 
cent,  alkaloid.1  Dunstan  isolated  his  alkaloid,  ready  for  the  balance, 
in  a  crystalline  condition,  which  I  consider  a  far  safer  way  of  operat- 
ing. The  use  of  iodeosin  is  attended  by  so  many  details,  which  have 
to  be  scrupulously  carried  out,  or  the  results  of  its  application  are  apt 
to  be  misinterpreted,  if  the  method  were  to  be  generally  applied. 
I  cannot  forego  to  quote  Prof.  E.  Schaer  "  On  the  action  of  chloro- 
form and  similar  solvents  on  alkaloidal  salts  (Ph.  jt.,  March  24, 
1900),"  because  Dunstan  reports,  "  in  fractionally  crystallizing  this 
alkaloid,  by  adding  light  petroleum  to  its  solution  in  dry  chloroform, 
it  was  nearly  all  obtained  in  white,  silky  needles,  melting  at  JO50." 
N.  B. — I  have  some  of  the  original  Egyptian  material  of  Hyoscy- 
amus  muticus  left,  and  shall  be  pleased  to  let  any  one  who  is  inter- 
ested in  this  investigation  have  some  (care  of  editor  Am.  Jr.  Ph.). 
DRUG  AND   MEDICINAL -PLANT  INVESTIGATIONS  IN 
THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE. 
By  Rodney  H.  True. 
Those  familiar  with  the  question  of  the  supply  of  crude  drugs  for 
the  American  market  are  well  aware  that  at  the  present  time  by  far 
the  larger  part  of  our  supply  of  crude  drugs  not  derived  from  plants 
exclusively  American  in  their  location  is  obtained  from  foreign 
sources — chiefly  from  Germany,  Austria,  Belgium  and  England. 
Other  drugs  of  great  importance  are  derived  from  the  Orient,  con- 
spicuously cinchona  and  opium,  and  South  America  furnishes  ipecac 
and  coca  leaves.  Of  these  drugs,  quantities  valued  at  more  than 
$6,000,000  are  annually  imported  into  the  United  States.  Some  of 
them  are  here  worked  up  by  manufacturing  chemists  into  their 
characteristic  active  principles,  and  others  are  used  directly  for  the 
preparation  of  medicines. 
It  has  long  been  a  matter  of  earnest  inquiry  by  thoughtful  men 
whether  of  these  articles  some  considerable  proportion  could  not  be 
grown  in  this  country,  offering,  as  the  United  States  does,  a  great 
variety  of  climatic  and  soil  conditions.     Apart,   nowever,  from 
1  Apotheker  Zeitung,  1900,  No.  2. 
