Am'ocTri884arm'}  Lukrabo  or  Ta-Fung-Tsze.  525 
alkaloid  disappear,  however,  most  surely  if  the  sulphuric  acid  solution 
be  subjected  to  a  prolonged  boiling. 
The  most  important  results  of  the  foregoing  investigations  may  be 
brought  together  in  the  following  propositions : 
(1.)  Homoquinine  is  a  modification  of  quinine. 
(2.)  Cuprea  bark  in  many  cases  contains  this  modification  together 
with  quinine. 
(3.)  Several  modifications  of  quinine  exist,  which  by  suitable  treat- 
ment pass  into  ordinary  quinine. 
LUKRABO  OR  TA-FUNG-TSZE. 
By  E.  M.  Holmes,  F.L.S., 
Curator  of  the  Museum  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society. 
In  the  interesting  papers  on  "  Chinese  Materia  Medica,"  by  the  late 
Daniel  Hanbury,  published  in  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal  ([2],  vol. 
iii.,  1862),  a  seed  is  described  and  illustrated  under  the  name  of  Ta- 
fung-txze,  which  he  conjectured  to  be  allied  to  Chaulmugra.  This  seed 
is  largely  used  in  China  in  skin  diseases  and  leprosy,  and  appears  to 
have  been  employed  in  that  country  for  at  least  three  hundred  years, 
since  the  tree  affording  the  seed  is  figured  in  the  old  Chinese  herbal, 
"  Puntsaou,"  published  a.d.  1596.  The  tree,  however,  has  up  to  the 
present  time  been  unknown  to  botanists. 
The  Ta-fung-tsze  is  still  an  article  of  considerable  commerce,  figur- 
ing in  the  Consular  Blue  Books  under  Chinese  imports  by  the  name 
of  Lukrabo.  As  much  as  48  piculs  (6,400  lbs.)  of  the  seed  were 
exported  from  Bangkok  to  China  in  1871.  It  is  also  exported  thither 
from  Saigon  in  Cochin  China.  The  seed  in  question  is  about  half  the 
length  of  Chaulmugra  seed,  but  of  equal  diameter.  The  shell  is 
thicker  and  harder,  and  at  one  end  is  marked  with  a  few  radiating 
slightly  raised  ridges,  whereas  that  of  Chaulmugra  is  quite  smooth. 
Dr.  Porter  Smith,  in  his  "  Chinese  Materia  Medica."  (1871),  p.  140, 
describes  these  seeds  under  the  name  of  Lucrubau,  and  he  also  con- 
siders them  as  a  variety  of  Chaulmugra.  He  states  that  they  are 
described  in  Chinese  books  as  being  good  for  leprosy,  lepra,  itch,  pity- 
riasis, psoriasis,  syphilis,  lipoma,  vermes,  and  chaps  upon  the  back  of 
the  hands,  and  that  calomel  and  the  seeds  of  Robinia  amara  are  used 
with  the  Lucrubau,  both  externally  and  internally,  in  the  treatment  of 
