366 
ASAFCETIDA  IN  AFFGHANISTAN. 
one  bean  was  given  to  a  rabbit;  five  minutes  afterwards  it  fell, 
remained  motionless,  and  died  twenty-five  minutes  later,  or  half 
an  hour  after  the  taking  of  the  poison.  Physostigmine  causes 
contraction  of  the  iris,  even  in  the  eye  of  an  animal  which  has 
already  been  dead  for  some  time.  A  rabbit's  eye,  treated  with 
two  drops  of  watery  solution  an  hour  after  the  animal  had  been 
killed  mechanically,  showed  a  contraction  of  the  pupil  to  one- 
fourth  of  the  other  eye.  A  rabbit  killed  with  physostigmine  did 
not  show  this  feature  ;  but  it  was  exhibited  to  a  small  degree  by 
one  which  had  been  killed  by  cyanide  of  potassium.  This  shows 
that  muscles,  though  dead,  are  yet  liable  to  be  influenced  spe- 
cifically, and  not  only  by  the  galvanic  current,  but  also  by  phy- 
sostigmine.—  London  Pharm.  Journ.,  April,  1864,  from  Ann. 
Chem.  und  Pharm.,  Jan.,  1864;  and  British  Medical  Journal. 
ASAFCETIDA  IN  AFFGHANISTAN. 
A  Supplementary  Note.    By  M.  C.  Cooke. 
To  what  was  before  known  with  certainty  of  Asafcetida  in 
Afghanistan  may  be  added  the  following  particulars,  communica- 
ted principally  by  Dr.  Bellew,  who  was  formerly  attached  to  the 
,  mission  to  Kandahar.  Some  portion  may  be  a  repetition  of  the 
same  facts  previously  obtained  by  other  travellers,  and  which  are 
hereby  corroborated;  for  other  information  now  communicated 
for  the  first  time,  Dr.  Bellew  is  mainly  responsible.  This  brief 
notice  can,  however,  only  be  regarded  as  supplementary. 
The  asafcetida  of  commerce  is  obtained  from  only  one  plant  in 
Afghanistan,  viz.,  Narthex  asafostida.  It  grows  wild  on  the 
hills  about  Herat  and  Furrah,  and  is  never  cultivated,  though  hun- 
dreds of  the  Kakar  tribe  from  the  Boree  family,  who  collect  the 
gum,  remain  in  the  deserts  to  tend  and  water  the  plant. 
The  "  tear  "  sort  is  the  gum  resin  that  exudes,  and  dries  drop 
by  drop,  from  incisions  around  the  top  of  the  root;  the  "lump" 
sort  is  the  gum  resin  as  it  exudes  from  a  broad  surface,  as  when 
the  top  of  the  root  is  sliced  off.  The  latter  sort  is  more  fre- 
quently met  with  than  the  former,  but  I  do  not  know  of  any  dif- 
ference in  the  qualities  of  the  two  sorts.  There  arc  several  other 
umbelliferous  plants  in  Afghanistan  which  resemble  the  asafce- 
