Am.  Tour.  Pharm. 
May,  1894. 
Contributions  to  Pharmacy. 
245 
parts  of  them,  when  necessary,  and  staining  the  suitable  portions 
in  imitation  of  the  Rio  variety,  for  the  purpose  of  evading  our 
custom  house  officers." 
Senna  pods  are  now  sold  in  the  London  markets,  and,  contrary  to 
the  old  belief,  they  have  been  found  to  have  the  same  properties,  and 
to  be  probably  little,  if  any,  inferior  to  Senna  leaves. 
Wild  mace,  a  product  of  Myristica  Malabarica,  and  almost  entirely 
devoid  of  aromatic  properties,  is  largely  sold;  for  what  use,  it  is  not 
stated. 
In  conclusion,  Prof.  Rusby  refers  to  a  visit  to  the  famous  Mea- 
cham  Drug  Farms.  The  soil  is  chalky,  which  is  believed  to  favor 
the  development  of  volatile  oils  in  plants.  Large  fields  of  pepper- 
mint, thyme  and  chamomile  were  observed.  The  cultivators  of  the 
plants  do  not  themselves  do  the  distilling,  which  is  a  separate  indus- 
try. In  some  cases,  the  owners  of  the  stills  purchase  the  crop  from 
the  farmers,  and  distil  it  in  their  own  interest,  but  ordinarily  the 
crop  is  brought  to  them  by  the  owners,  and  distilled  for  a  toll  or 
fee,  and  the  product  returned  to  them  after  distillation  by  the  owner 
of  the  still.  J.  W.  England. 
Recent  Contributions  to  the  Knowledge  of  Squill. — This  bulb  has 
repeatedly  been  the  subject  of  investigation,  but  without  definitely 
ascertaining  the  several,  especially  the  active,  constituents.  The 
older  literature  embraces  investigations  of  Vogel,  Lebourdais,  Lan- 
derer,  Bley,  Wittstein,  Tilloy,  Mandet  and  Schroff,  which  contain 
so  many  contradictory  statements  that  their  results  must  have 
little  importance.  In  1878  there  were  prepared  in  Merck's  labor- 
atory three  substances,  concerning  which  only  meagre  statements 
are  made  :  Scillipicrin,  scillitoxin  and  scillin,  the  last  of  which  was  in 
crystalline  form  ;  according  to  C.  Mbller,  the  first  two  were  proven 
to  be  heart  poisons. 
E.  von  Jarmerstedt  published  the  first  process  for  isolating  the 
bitter  principle  :  The  dried  red  scales  were  digested  with  water  on 
a  water-bath  for  one  to  two  days,  the  dark-brown  colored  decoction 
having  an  acid  reaction  and  a  very  bitter  taste,  evaporated  on  a 
water-bath  to  a  small  volume,  mixed  with  subacetate  of  lead,  until 
the  supernatant  liquid  gave  but  a  slight  precipitate,  the  latter  col- 
lected on  a  filter  and  washed  with  hot  water ;  the  filtrate  was  freed 
from  lead  by  the  addition  of  dilute  sulphuric  acid  and  filtration, 
