Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Nov.  1, 1871.  j 
Editorial, 
525 
cines,  wherein  a  nostrum  was  stated  to  be  composed  of  the  powder  and  the 
extract  of  coca.  Some  of  our  contemporaries  improved  on  that  report  and 
made  the  nostrum  from  cocoa.  The  oil  of  theobroma,  at  present  the  favorite 
excipient  for  suppositories,  is  very  frequently  called  cocoa  butter,  perhaps  be- 
cause some  well  known  dietetic  preparations  of  the  so-called  chocolate  nuts  have 
been  misnamed  cocoa. 
Erytliroxylon  Coca,  Lamb.,  grows  in  South  America  and  belongs  to  the 
order  erythroxylaceae.  The  leaves  are  used  by  the  Indians  and  are  capable  of 
sustaining  their  strength,  without  any  other  food,  on  long  and  tedious  journeys 
and  during  great  exertions. 
Cocos  nuctf&ra,  Lin.,  is  a  palm,  growing  in  tropical  countries  and  furnishing 
the  well-known  cocoauut  with  its  refreshing  milk,  and  yielding  the  cocoanut  oil 
or  cocoanut  butter,  a  solid  white  fat  largely  used  in  the  manufacture  of  candles 
and  soap. 
Theobroma  cacao,  Lin.,  and  a  few  other  species  of  the  natural  order  of  Bytt- 
neracese,  natives  of  Central  and  South  America,  produce  seeds,  known  in 
commerce  as  chocolate  nuts.  The  fat  expressed  from  them  is  the  officinal 
cacao  butter,  the  mass  left  in  the  press  constitutes  the  main  ingredient  of  choc- 
olate. 
Strychnos  Potatorum. — On  page  241  of  this  volume  of  the  Journal  we 
described  among  others,  the  seeds  of  a  species  of  strychnos,  which  a  year  ago 
arrived  at  New  York  as  ballast  in  a  ship  from  the  East  Indies.  We  concluded 
from  our  investigations,  that  they  belonged  to  Strychnos  potatorum,  Lin.  fil.j 
and  we  are  now  enabled  to  verify  this  opinion.  Professor  W.  H.  Chandler,  of  the 
Lehigh  University  at  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  handed  us  a  parcel  of  authentic  seeds  of 
that  plant  from  Mr.  James  Collins,  curator  of  the  museum  of  the  Pharmaceuti- 
cal Society  of  London  ;  the  seeds  received  are  identical  with  those  mentioned 
before.  We  are  under  obligations  to  both  gentlemen  for  the  kindness  shown 
us. 
CuNDURANGO. — We  havc  hitherto  refrained  from  giving  to  our  readers  the 
glowing  accounts  of  the  efficacy  of  this  wonderful  humbug,  simply  because  we 
looked  with  suspicion  upon  its  introduction  into  the  list  of  standard  materia 
medica  as  an  unfailing  specific  in  cancer.  The  most  surprising  feature  of  its 
history  has  been  the  manner  in  which  the  State  department  has  been  used  as 
the  tool  to  advertise  it  as  a  nostrum.  That  it  does  not  cure  cancer  has  been 
proven  by  the  medical  profession  of  Washington,  D.  C. ;  several  of  the  patients 
who  improved  under  its  use,  have  subsequently  convalesced  into  the  grave,  and 
the  others  are  about  the  same  as  before  they  commenced  using  it. 
The  first  authentic  news  of  its  origin  which  we  have  seen,  is  contained  in  the 
communication  from  Mr.  Dan.  C.  Robbins,  published  elsewhere.  From  Dr 
Fred.  Hoffmann,  of  New  York,  we  have  received  substantially  the  same  informa- 
tion, accompanied  by  some  specimens,  one  of  which  is  identical  with  a  specimen 
received  from  Professor  Jos.  Carson,  of  this  city,  which  had  reached  him  from 
the  State  department  through  Prof.  Henry,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
and  was.  therefore,  some  of  the  original  cundurango  that  reached  this  country. 
Dr.  Hoffmann  informs  us  that  almost  weekly,  shipments  of  this  drug  arrive  at 
