AmMi?ch,^t.rm-}  True  and  False  Cactus  Grandiflorus.  157 
ness  of  Cereus  and  Opuntia,  one  must  ask  how  the  drugs  came  to 
have  tonic  properties  ?  Before  answering  this  query,  we  have  to 
pause  and  ask  ourselves  how  we  have  acquired  our  knowledge  of 
many  of  our  most  valuable  drugs.  We  civilized  races,  who  have  an 
intimate  acquaintance  with  the  sciences  upon  which  is  built  the 
rational  treatment  of  disease,  have  to  acknowledge  that  to  savage 
tribes  or  unlettered  peoples  belongs  the  credit  of  bringing  under 
our  notice  the  action  of  valuable  drugs.  Only  to  name  one — sacred 
bark.  The  Spanish  settlers  of  the  Pacific  Coast  employed  this  agent 
long  before  it  was  known  to  us,  and  those  Spanish  settlers,  we  can 
hardly  doubt,  got  their  information  from  the  original  occupiers  of 
the  soil.  In  like  manner,  Cereus  grandifiorus  has  been  long  em- 
ployed by  the  West  India  Islanders  in  dropsy.  Opuntia  is  also 
employed,  in  the  form  of  a  decoction,  as  a  demulcent  drink. 
Both  drugs  contain  a  certain  amount  of  resins  and  pectin  (or  a 
similar  agent),  and  these  substances  have  a  stimulant  action  on  the 
kidneys,  and  would,  of  course,  be  useful  in  dropsies.  Now,  many 
dropsies,  if  not  most,  have  their  origin  in  heart  affections.  The 
transition  from  the  treatment  of  dropsy  to  the  treatment  of  heart 
affections  is  an  easy  one.  But  then  these  peoples  employ  decoctions 
in  which  a  large  proportion  of  pectin  is  present.  We  employ  alco- 
holic tinctures  or  extracts  in  which  practically  no  pectin  is  present. 
Besides,  these  resins  and  pectins  have  no  action  on  the  heart  itself. 
It  must  not  be  inferred  from  this  that  I  advocate  decoctions  of 
Cereus  and  Opuntia.  Although  useful  in  dropsies,  they  are  no 
more  efficacious  than  the  demulcent  drinks  known  to  us,  such  as 
barley  water,  gruels,  and  others,  which  we  are  in  the  habit  of  em- 
ploying as  aids  in  the  treatment  of  dropsies.  They  are  aids,  noth- 
ing more.  We  use  what  lies  to  our  hand,  and  the  West  India 
Islanders  do  the  same. 
I  have  so  many  people  to  thank  for  help  in  my  work  on  these 
drugs  that  I  hardly  know  where  to  begin ;  but  I  must  not  forget  to 
mention  Mr.  J.  H.  Hoseason,  late  Lecturer  on  Pharmacy  in  the 
Owens  College;  Mr.  E.  M.  Holmes  ;  Messrs.  Parke,  Davis  &  Co.  ; 
Burroughs,  Wellcome  &  Co.  ;  Evans,  Gadd  &  Co.  ;  Wyatt  (Lancas- 
ter), and  others. 
The  chrome-ore  industry  in  California,  which  for  many  years  has  been  the 
only  domestic  source  of  supply,  became  practically  defunct  in  1S97.  The  total 
production  of  the  State  is  estimated  at  50  tons,  and  the  general  opinion  is  that 
the  industry  has  no  future. 
