viii 
Notes  and  News. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
X  November,  1898. 
is  said  to  be  the  first  known  example  of  a  vegetable  juice  conferring  immunity 
against  venom. 
Pa-Chioh  is  the  Chinese  name  for  Star  aniseed,  signifying  "eight  horns  or 
corners,"  from  the  shape  of  the  fruit.  The  tree  which  produces  this  fruit,  accord- 
ing to  A.  Hosie,  occupies  a  comparatively  small  area,  being  confined  to  Tonquin 
and  the  southwest  of  Kwangsi.  The  bulk  of  the  star  aniseed  trade  has  hitherto 
passed  through  the  port  of  Pakhoi,  and  in  1896  Pakhoi  exported  6,691  piculs  of 
the  value  of  113,817  Haikwan  taels.  This,  as  well  as  the  oil  extracted  from  the 
seeds  (2,053  piculs  valued  at  410,692  Haikwan  taels)  wTas  sent  to  Hong  Kong, 
while  69  peculsof  oil,  of  the  value  of  15,552  Haikwan  taels,  passed  Lungchow 
for  Tonquin.  It  is  stated  that,  owing  to  the  destructive  method  of  collecting 
the  fruit,  there  is  a  good  crop  only  once  in  three  years.  Complaints  have  been 
made  that  the  oil  is  adulterated  with  kerosene. — Pharm.  Jour.,  1898,  p.  226. 
The  Cassia  Producing  Districts  of  China  are  situated  in  the  southern  bor- 
der lands  of  Kwangtung  and  Kwangsi  provinces,  in  the  south  of  the  West 
River.  The  market  town  of  Ta-wu,  in  the  Pinguan  district  is  the  great  centre 
of  the  cassia  trade,  w7here  50,000  to  60,000  piculs  are  annually  disposed  of.  It 
is  exported,  packed  in  matting,  by  junk  to  Canton,  where  there  is  a  powerful 
cassia  ring,  which  has  an  arrangement  with  the  native  custom  house  and  likin 
offices,  and  virtually  controls  the  whole  trade  of  Kwangtung  and  Kwangsi. 
The  total  export  of  cassia,  including  cassia  lignea,  buds,  twigs,  twig-bark  and 
broken  cassia,  from  the  two  provinces  through  Canton  in  1896  amounted  to 
102,810  piculs,  valued  at  590,798  Haikwan  taels  ;  of  so-called  cinnamon,  99 
piculs,  valued  at  4,801  Haikwan  taels  were  also  exported,  as  well  as  398  piculs 
of  leaf  oil  of  the  value  of  56,484  Haikwan  taels,  making  a  total  of  cassia  and 
cassia  products  of  653,083  Haikwan  taels.  China  is  reported  to  consume  very 
much  more  than  she  exports,  so  that  the  total  value  of  the  cassia  trade  must  be 
very  considerable. — Ibid.,  226. 
The  Relation  of  the  Taste  of  Acids  to  their  Degree  of  Dissociation. — Theo- 
dore William  Richards  {Am.  Chem.  Jour.,  20,  121-126)  finds  that  he  can  just 
detect,  by  tasting,  the  acidity  of  a  nearly  one-thousandth  normal  hydrochloric 
acid  solution,  and  can  distinguish  weak  solutions  differing  from  one  another 
in  concentration  by  25  per  cent. ;  and  he  shows  that  tenth -normal  acid  can  be 
titrated  with  alkali  with  an  error  of  less  than  1  per  cent.,  using  the  sense  of 
taste  as  an  indicator  of  neutrality.  The  sour  taste  of  different  acids  was  not 
found  to  be  proportional  to  their  degree  of  dissociation  ;  for  example,  a  o  001 
normal  hydrochlcric  acid  had  a  taste  like  that  of  an  acetic  acid  solution  three 
times  as  strong,  although  the  concentration  of  the  hydrogen  ions  in  the  former 
solution  is  about  five  times  as  great  as  in  the  latter  solution.  It  was  further 
found  that,  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  mass-action,  sodium  acetate  greatly 
diminished  the  sour  taste  of  acetic  acid,  though  not  as  much  as  the  theory 
requires,  while  potassium  chloride  has  no  influence  on  that  of  hydrochloric 
acid.— Journal  of  the  American  Chemical  Society,  May,  1898. 
UTERATURE. 
The  Price-List  of  Parke  Davis  &  Co.  for  1898  contains  useful  information 
on  many  of  the  newer  drugs  and  remedies.  The  table  of  synonyms  will  be 
found  particularly  helpful  to  all  retail  pharmacists. 
