^November^^g'io: }      Mulfofd  Btologtcal  Exploratiou.  815 
The  Extraction  of  Opium  by  Hot  Water. — Our  single  experiment 
on  this  point  illustrates  once  more  what  has  been  previously  shown 
by  others,  viz,,  that  water  alone  does  not  completely  extract  mor- 
phine compounds  from  opium.  In  our  sample  we  found  0.17  per 
cent,  of  morphine  (nearly  2  per  cent,  of  the  total  originally  present) 
was  not  extracted  even  under  somewhat  drastic  treatment.  We 
also  found  that  the  destruction  of  morphine  by  prolonged  digestion 
of  the  extract  was  0.91  per  cent,  (more  than  9  per  cent,  of  the  total 
originally  present).  While  these  points  are  not  new,  it  appears  to 
us  that  they  call  for  more  notice  than  they  have  yet  obtained  seeing 
that  they  have  bearing  both  on  some  methods  of  assaying .  opium 
and  on  the  preparation  of  certain  pharmaceutical  products. 
This  work  was  planned  and  carried  out  by  us  in  the  Analytical 
Laboratory  of  the  Department  of  Customs  and  Inland  Revenue, 
Ottawa,  Canada.  We  wish  to  extend  our  thanks  to  Mr.  F.  W. 
Babington  the  head  of  that  Laboratory  for  many  acts  of  kindness 
which  gave  us  time  and  opportunity  to  do  more  than  the  routine 
work  which  was  necessarily  our  chief  concern. 
THE   MULFORD   BIOLOGICAL   EXPLORATION   OF  THE 
AMAZON  BASIN. 
Preliminary  and  more  or  less  erroneous  announcements  of  this 
enterprise  have  appeared  in  the  daily  press,  but  without  details 
as  to  the  objects  of  the  work  and  its  special  relations  to  medicine 
and  pharmacy.  The  following  is  a  complete  prospectus  of  the 
Exploration. 
The  original  idea  of  the  expedition  was  far  less  comprehensive 
than  that  which  now  has  developed.  Doctor  Rusby  having  gained 
information  from  travelers  in  northwestern  Brazil  of  certain  medicines 
in  use  by  the  natives  which  possessed  very  interesting  properties, 
and  properties  that  might  render  them  of  value  in  medicine,  has 
long  desired  to  observe  their  effects  as  there  used,  and  to  secure 
supplies  for  scientific  investigation,  and  it  was  to  carry  out  this 
object  that  the  plan  was  originally  conceived.  In  performing  this 
work  it  would  also  be  practicable  to  make  a  general  collection  of 
the  flora  of  a  very  extensive  region  in  southeastern  Colombia  and 
northwestern  Brazil,  in  which  no  botanical  collections  have  as  yet 
been  made.    Since  the  New  York  Botanical  Garden,  Harvard 
