-^^^^192":}      Formosa,  the  Home  of  Camphor.  237 
It  was  originally  indicated  by  Ehrlich  and  Bertheim  that  the 
crude  base  from  the  hyposulphite  reduction  contained  sulphur  at- 
tached to  arsenic  which  was  removed  by  conversion  into  the  hydro- 
chloride. The  authors  found,  however,  several  years  ago,  that 
commercial  salvarsan  of  both  British  and  German  origin  invariably 
contained  sulphur,  the  amount  varying  generally  from  one  to  two 
per  cent,  (compare  Medical  Research  Committee,  Special  Report 
Series  No.  44,  Reports  of  the  Special  Committee  on  the  Manufacture, 
Biological  Testing  and  Clinical  Administration  of  Salvarsan,  No. 
I,  p.  8).  As  the  result  of  a  comprehensive  series  of  experiments  it 
was  concluded  that  at  least  a  portion  of  the  sulphur  was  present  in 
acidic  form,  most  probably  as  a  sulphaminic  acid,  R.NH.SO3H, 
and  a  product  closely  approximating  in  composition  to  the  hydro- 
chloride of  the  monosulphaminic  acid  of  salvarsan,  (HCl,  NH2) 
(OH)  C6H3.As2.C6H3  (OH)  (NH.SO3H),  was  actually  isolated.  The 
presence  of  this  product,  which  could  be  estimated  quantitatively 
with  some  degree  of  accuracy,  did  not  as  a  rule  account  for  the  whole 
of  the  sulphur,  and  evidence  was  given  in  support  of  the  assumption 
that  a  proportion  of  the  remainder  was  attached  to  arsenic.  It 
was  also  suggested  that  owing  to  the  fact  that  salvarsan  possessed 
some  of  the  properties  of  a  colloid  sulphur  might  be  present  merely 
in  physical  association.  The  last  section  of  the  paper  dealt  with  the 
preparation  of  pure  diamino-dihydroxy  arsenobenzene  dihydro- 
chloride,  the  most  satisfactory  process  being  the  reduction  of  3- 
amino-4-hydroxyphenylarsinic  acid  with  hypophosphorous  acid. 
It  is  interesting  to  record  that  a  specimen  of  this  pure  material 
tested  by  the  Medical  Research  Committee  proved  to  be  more  than 
normally  toxic. 
FORMOvSA,  THE  HOME  OF  CAMPHOR. 
The  March,  1920,  issue  of  the  National  Geographic  Magazine 
contains  a  profusely  illustrated  article  on  "Formosa  the  Beautiful," 
by  Alice  Ballantine  Kirjassolf,  in  which  an  interesting  account  is 
^iven  of  the  camphor  production  of  this  isle  whose  "plateaus  covered 
with  camphor  laurel,  are  the  largest  tracts  of  these  valuable  trees 
in  the  world."  The  information  contained  therein  that  is  considered 
of  especial  interest  to  the  student  of  drug  products  is  presented  to 
our  readers  in  this  abstract: 
