AmAP°riuP£rm'}         Lands  Where  Drugs  Grow.  167 
organisms  grow  with  fearful  rapidity  and  produce  marvellous  trans- 
formations. A  dismembered  plant  left  to  the  uncontrolled  action  of 
bacteria  would  soon  rot  and  mould  out  of  existence.  But  greater 
than  all  is  the  action  of  the  ferments.  Secreted  by  the  plant  cell, 
they  are  called  into  their  highest  state  of  activity  by  the  dismem- 
berment of  the  plant.  The  change  in  the  juice  of  the  dying  plant 
furnishes  the  favoring  media.  With  the  inlet  of  oxygen  they 
spring  from  a  dormant  state  to  become  an  incalculable  force. 
The  presence  and  action  of  these  oxidizing  ferments  in  vegetable 
juices  is  easily  demonstrated.  We  have  simply  to  cut  an  apple, 
pear,  carrot,  and  note  the  rapid  browning  of  the  juice.  The  same 
action  will  take  place  in  many  medicinal  plants,  probably  in  all 
containing  glucosides,  chromogen,  and  tannic  compounds.  In 
aconite,  belladonna  and  hyoscyamus  the  action  is  observable  to  the 
eye.  If  the  juice  of  these  plants  is  extracted,  boiled  and  filtered,  the 
extract  will  have  the  beautiful  green  color  of  the  chlorophyl  which 
will  remain.  If  we  omit  the  boiling,  the  juice  will  darken,  turn 
muddy,  and  the  green  color  will  finally  disappear.  These  changes 
are  observable  even  when  care  is  taken  to  exclude  bacteria,  as  by 
conducting  the  examination  under  cover,  by  filtering  juices  through 
porcelain  or  using  antiseptics.  Farther,  if  we  add  to  the  boiled 
juice  a  portion  of  the  fresh  unboiled  extract,  we  find  that  the  same 
change  of  color  follows.  If  we  extract  the  plant  with  a  menstruum 
of  glycerine  and  water  (adding  enough  chloroform  to  prevent 
change),  and  then  add  to  the  extract  an  excess  of  alcohol,  we  obtain 
a  precipitate  which,  on  redissolving  in  water,  will  be  found  to  be 
the  cause  of  the  change;  in  other  words,  the  precipitate  carries  the 
oxidizing  ferment. 
By  similar  methods  we  may  demonstrate  the  presence  and  action 
of  diastase  and  inulose;  the  gum  ferment,  and  the  cellulose- 
dissolving  enzymes ;  pectose,  a  jelly  forming  ferment ;  glucoside- 
splitting  enzymes,  as  shown  in  myrosin,  from  mustard ;  rhamnose, 
etc.  To  these  agents  we  may  add  the  host  of  bacterial  forces  pres- 
ent in  the  plant,  in  the  air,  and  invading  the  dead  plant  from  every 
„  side. 
My  own  observations,  while  exceedingly  crude,  are  recorded  in  the 
hope  of  stimulating  further  study  by  more  able  workers.  I  have 
made  attempts  to  examine  and  compare  the  extractive  from  certain 
plants  while  in  the  green  state,  and  from  the  same  plants  dried,  and 
