244 
Contributions  to  Pharmacy. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharrr. 
May,  1894. 
RECENT  CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  PHARMACY. 
Observations  of  a  Pharmacognosist  in  England. — Under  the  above 
caption  Prof.  Henry  H.  Rusby  delivered  recently  a  very  interesting 
address  before  the  Alumni  Association  of  the  New  York  College  of 
Pharmacy,  {Alumni  Journal,  1894,49).  After  expressing  his  appre- 
ciation of  the  privileges  extended  to  him  of  working  on  the  Kew 
Herbarium,  he  records  certain  conclusions  relative  to  Cinchona 
Calisaya  which  are  sure  to  excite  comment.  Premising  his  conclu- 
sions with  the  statement  that  his  attempts  to  determine  certain 
Bolivian  forms  of  Cinchona  had  resulted  somewhat  unsatisfactorily 
in  the  past,  and  that  there  seemed  to  be  a  clear  discrepancy  between 
his  results  and  the  current  determinations  of  different  species,  he 
expresses  the  belief  that  the  Kew  specimens  of  Cinchona  Calisaya 
are  all  wrongly  named,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  correctness 
of  this  conclusion  involves  the  wrong  naming  of  millions  of  trees  at 
all  the  centres  of  Cinchona  cultivation  outside  of  America,  at  the 
time  that  those  localities  contributed  their  specimens  to  Kew. 
In  arriving  at  this  conclusion,  Prof.  Rusby  was  governed  by  a 
specimen  of  Cinchona  Calisaya,  shown  him,  while  in  London,  by  Mr. 
Howard,  a  grandson  of  the  famous  quinologist.  The  specimen 
examined  was  an  original  one  from  which  Mr.  Weddell  had  drawn 
up  his  description  of  Cinchona  Calisaya.  It  was  exactly  as  Prof. 
Rusby  had  pictured  it,  and  corresponded  with  not  more  than  three 
or  four  of  the  entire  collection  of  specimens  so  named  at  Kew. 
Therefore  he  emphatically  states  that  the  plant  called  Cinchona  Cali- 
saya var.  Josephiana  has  been  enormously  cultivated  and  distributed 
to  herbaria  under  the  name  of  Cinchona  Calisaya.  He  further  says 
that  if  the  plant  were  in  reality  a  variety  of  the  species  to  which  it  is 
accredited,  the  error  would  be  less  grave;  but  it  is,  in  all  essential 
characters,  and  particularly  in  its  economic  aspects,  as  distinct  from 
Cinchona  Calisaya  as  it  well  could  be. 
Certain  other  statements  are  also  of  especial  interest :  Rhaponti- 
cum  or  spurious  rhubarb  is  largely  grown  in  England,  and  the  belief 
is  expressed  that  an  important  branch  of  the  business  is  in  the  ship- 
ping of  this  article  to  American  ports. 
Carthagena  ipecac  is  supposed  to  be  rigidly  excluded  from  our 
market,  yet  it  is  stated  that  very  direct  and  definite  evidence  exists 
that  a  regular  business  exists  in  London  of  "  picking  over  the 
Carthagena  ipecac,  selecting  certain  roots,  breaking  off  certain 
