206 
ON PAULLTNIA. 
competition, have too often recourse to means which disgrace 
the character of men pursuing the study of the most attractive 
natural science. Pharmacy, unhappily, has been coerced to 
submit to the common law which regulates other professions; 
there have been established cheap shops, which lead the pub- 
lic to believe that if the price of medicines is so high, it is be- 
cause the persons who sell them wish to receive too much 
profit from them. If the public mind, so bad a judge in 
this matter, has become once thus possessed, it will happen 
that pharmaciens, the most devoted to their art, and the most 
disinterested, will experience the commondestructive influence. 
Journ. de Chimie Medicale. 
ART. XXXVII. — ON PAULLINIA, A NEW MEDICINAL SUB- 
STANCE. By Dr. Gavrelle. 
Paullinia is an extract from a plant of the same name, 
originally from Brazil, which extract is prepared by the In- 
dians, and appears to possess a very energetic stimulating ac- 
tion. M. Gavrelle has presented a specimen to the Society of 
Medicine, together with a new alkali, which two chemists of 
Paris had separated by analysis. The extract and alkali are 
very bitter and exhibit great analogy with cafiein. 
It is probable that Paullinia, or the extract which bears this 
name, is extracted from several plants of the genus Paullinia, 
which contains thirty-one species, and is of the natural family 
Sapindaceae; and Octandria, Triginia, in the artificial arrange- 
ment. 
This genus has received its name from being dedicated to 
Simon Paulli, a physician and botanist, who was born at Ros- 
took in 1603, and died at Copenhagen in 17S0. This physi- 
cian was the author of several works, and more notably of 
Quadripartitum de Simplicium Medicamentorum Facul- 
