96 
Kola  and  Kolanin. 
(  A.m.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1    February,  1896. 
KOLA  AND  KOLANIN.1^ 
By  Frkd.  B.  Kilmer. 
Those  who  can  realize  the  thoughts  of  the  coal-carrier  who  went 
to  Newcastle,  or  him  of  Shakespeare  who  gilded  gold  dollars,  colored 
flowers  of  the  fields,  sandpapered  ice,  and  threw  the  reflection  of  a 
candle  against  the  noon-day  sun,  can  imagine  the  feelings  with  which 
I  have  accepted  the  call  of  your  committee  to  read  a  paper  before 
this  body  of  pharmacal  savants.  In  this  noble  institution  of  Amer- 
ican pharmacy,  the  lower-class  men  can  attain  a  knowledge  never 
reached  even  in  the  professor's  chair  in  the  school  of  many  of  us. 
For  one  denied  these  great  privileges  to  attempt  the  discussion  of  a 
phyto-chemical  subject  before  the  faculty  of  this  College,  seems 
highly  presumptuous.  To  be  given  a  topic  that  has  been  so  ably 
handled  in  your  journals,  in  the  professors'  chairs,  and  in  these  meet- 
ings, smacks  of  ridiculous  excess.  I  shall,  therefore,  at  the  outset, 
state  that  I  have  come  to  seek  rather  than  to  give  information ;  to 
ask  questions  rather  than  to  attempt  to  anwser  them,  conceding  to 
my  auditors  an  ability  and  familiarity  with  the  subject  far  greater 
in  most  respects  than  my  own.  We  may  note  here,  in  retaliation 
against  the  ill-timed  jests  as  to  the  slowness  of  Philadelphia,  that  the 
first  scientific  reference  in  this  country,  to  the  kola  plant,  upon  which 
I  am  to  speak,  may  be  found  in  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy, 
in  1865  ;  that  the  first  medical  report  in  America  upon  its  action  was 
published  in  the  Philadelphia  Medical  Times,  in  1886.  The  first  full 
clinical  report  was  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Shoemaker,  of  Philadelphia. 
The  subject  assigned  me  is  the  well-worn  theme,  the  Kola  Plant. 
Its  history  and  pharmacognosy  are  so  familiar  that  we  can  safely 
pass  them,  except  to  call  attention  to  the  botanical  specimen  of  a 
flowering  branch,  specimens  of  the  pods,  the  nuts,  photographs  taken 
in  the  habitat  of  the  drug,  together  with  samples  of  the  dried  and 
undried  fruit,  all  of  which  I  present  to  your  Museum.  The  kola 
nuts,  as  found  in  our  market,  come  mainly  from  Africa.  The  bulk 
of  the  West  India  nuts  are  consumed  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
islands;  a  very  small  part  of  the  crop  is  shipped  to  Europe,  command- 
ing there  a  higher  price  than  the  African  nuts.  Lately,  small  supplies 
have  reached  our  market  from  this  source.    No  accurate  estimate  of 
1  Read  before  the  pharmaceutical  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy,  January  21,  1896 
