A  February^™-}  Kola   ClUO,  Kolanifl.  I05 
The  exact  nature  and  office  of  plant  ferments  are  somewhat  obscure. 
Prof.  J.  R.  Greene,  London,  gives  as  an  explanation  the  fact  that,  in 
constructive  processes  of  plant  life,  an  excess  of  material  is  formed 
over  and  above  that  immediately  utilized  ;  that  this  excess  is  tem- 
porarily deposited  in  the  tissues,  nutritive  material  of  various  kinds 
being  found  in  different  regions  of  the  plant.  When  the  construc- 
tive process  is  at  rest  the  action  of  the  ferment  is  called  forth,  and 
the  reserve  food  is  made  ready  for  assimilation  by  a  process  of 
digestion,  in  which  the  ferments  are  active  factors.  Under  this 
view,  kolazym  may  be  said  to  act  upon  the  reserve  food  stored  in 
the  seed.  During  the  resting  stage  of  the  seed,  it  starts  the  diges- 
tion of  food  for  the  future  plant.  In  the  kola  nut,  some  of  the  pro- 
ducts of  this  metabolism  are  the  alkaloids  caffeine  and  theobromine  ; 
similarly,  a  product  of  the  metabolism  of  meat  are  the  closely 
related  xanthine  bodies.  We  find  in  the  ripened  seed  glucose, 
which  shows  the  ferment  has  been  at  work.  It  has  been  stated  that 
in  the  germinating  stage  more  caffeine  is  present  than  when  the 
seeds  were  first  taken  from  the  tree.  Prof.  Greene  claims  that  the 
glucoside  bodies  and  their  ferments  which  act  upon  them  are 
deposited  in  different  cells. 
PHARMACOLOGICAL  NOTES. 
An  apology  may  be  due  from  the  pharmacist  when  he  enters  the 
domain  of  pharmacology,  but  in  my  judgment  the  work  of  the 
pharmacist  does  not  end  with  his  chemical  assay.  To  verify  or 
nullify  his  conclusions,  the  action  of  any  drug  in  question  upon 
animal  economy  must  be  determined  (quite  apart  and  distinct  from 
their  action  in  disease).  Under  our  present  methods  of  drug  inves- 
tigation, this  work  is  left  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  medical 
practitioners,  but,  of  necessity,  does  not  belong  there.  Not  all  prac- 
titioners of  medicine  are  fully  competent  to  reach  proper  conclusions 
in  this  field,  and  those  who  are  competent  are  too  busy  to  carry  out 
any  extended  researches.  If  all  that  were  known  about  the  host  of  new 
and  old  drugs  was  expressed  in  a  table  of  their  chemical  constitu- 
ents, what  information  would  this  knowledge  convey  as  to  their 
value  in  medicine  ?  If  kola  were  an  entirely  new  drug  ;  if  its  alka- 
loids, caffeine  and  theobromine,  its  glucoside  kolanin,  were  entirely 
known,  should  the  pharmacist  be  content  to  rest  on  its  assay  and 
say  to  the  physician,  I  find  in  this  drug  one  glucosidal  body  and  two 
free  alkaloids  ;   the  alkaloids  are  so  similar,  chemically,  that  it  is 
