*LinAugU,r*x8>79^rm"}        Notes  on  A /stoma  Constrict  a.  403 
NOTES  ON  ALSTONIA  (Australian  fever  bark). 
By  Chas.  Mohr. 
Last  April  I  received  of  Mr.  J.  U.  Lloyd  a  specimen  of  a  thick, 
-rough,  yellow,  intensely  bitter  bark,  with  the  request  to  ascertain  the 
name  of  the  plant  from  which  it  is  derived. 
The  attention  of  Mr.  Lloyd  was  first  drawn  to  it  by  Prof.  Scudder, 
from  whom  he  received  the  bark,  with  the  remark,  that  it  made  its 
appearance  through  parties  intending  to  introduce  a  preparation  of  it  as 
a  powerful  anti-periodic  and  febrifuge,  and  that,  in  view  of  its  reputed 
remedial  qualities,  it  would  be  to  the  interest  of  the  profession  to 
ascertain  its  source.  Thus,  it  is  to  be  credited  to  the  efforts  of  Prof. 
Scudder  thac  the  remedy  was  prevented  from  being  placed  before  the 
profession  in  the  shape  of  a  secret  nostrum  or  patent  medicine. 
A  short  time  after  Messrs.  Merrill,  Thorp  and  Lloyd  distributed 
samples  of  the  bark,  under  the  name  of  Alstonia.  That  it  is  the  pro- 
duct of  a  species  of  that  genus  was  rendered  highly  probable  to  me 
by  its  microscopical  examination,  which  at  once  showed  by  the 
numerous  scarcely  anastomizing  lacteal  ducts  running  parallel  with,  and 
close  to,  the  bastbundles  of  the  inner  bark,  the  structure  characteristic 
to  the  Apocynaceae,  the  natural  order  including  the  genus  Alstonia,  R.Br. 
After  finding  it,  by  comparison,  to  differ  widely  from  dita*bark,  Alstonia 
scholaris,  I  failed  in  my  further  efforts  to  establish  botanically,  with  cer- 
tainty, the  generic  character  of  the  plant  from  which  it  takes  its  origin. 
To  obtain  a  further  clue  towards  that  end  chemical  investigation  was 
resorted  to,  and  I  was  not  disappointed  in  establishing  in  that  way, 
beyond  doubt,  the  claim  of  the  drug  to  the  name  under  which  it  came 
to  notice  through  Prof.  Scudder  and  Mr.  Lloyd. 
With  the  small  quantity  of  material  at  hand  a  regular  course  of 
analysis  was  out  of  question,  and  I  had  to  direct  my  efforts,  towards  obtain- 
ing an  alkaloid  or  other  characteristic  constituent  of  the  drug.  I  divided 
my  material  in  two  parts,  using  one  for  the  preparation  of  an  alcoholic 
extract,  and  submitting  the  other  to  treatment  with  dilute  hydrochloric 
acid.  Fortunately,  while  engaged  in  my  work,  "  Wittstein-Muellers' 
Constituents  of  Plants  "  came  into  my  possession,  and  I  was  able  to 
confine  myself  at  once  to  the  search  for  alstonin  and  a  study  of  its 
reactions.  On  treating  the  alcoholic  extract  with  ammonia  a  brown 
iflocculent  precipitate  was  obtained,  which,  after  being  dried,  was  found 
