248  Geography  and  Materia  Medic  a.  {AmMay!"i3P9?arrL- 
the  Pharmacopoeia  were  not  complied  with.  The  way  in  which  the 
absence  of  this  specification  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  works  out  in 
practice,  may  be  seen  in  the  following  instances  : 
Coca. — The  variation  of  cocaine  in  its  effects  has  long  been  known 
to  physicians,  but  only  within  the  last  two  or  three  years  has  it 
been  assumed  that  the  poisonous  action  (Pharm.  Jour.  [3],  xxi,  p. 
162)  may  be  due  to  the  isatropyl  cocaine  [Pharm.  Jour.  [3],  xxi,  p. 
1 109),  which  is  said  to  be  contained  more  especially  in  the  variety 
Novo-granatense,  Dyer.  It  becomes  important,  therefore,  that  the 
district  or  country  from  which  the  best  variety  of  the  leaves  is 
obtained,  should  be  stated  in  the  Pharmacopoeia,  so  that  the  prepa- 
rations used  may  thus  be  rendered  as  uniform  in  character  as  pos- 
sible. 
Cubebs. — For  some  years  past,  owing  to  the  scarcity  of  genuine 
cubebs,  a  spurious  kind  has  been  frequently  offered  in  commerce. 
This  kind,  which  is  distinguishable  by  its  mace-like  odor  and  taste 
and  by  not  giving  a  crimson  color  with  strong  sulphuric  acid  was 
found  to  cause  poisonous  symptoms.  Dr.  M.Treub  informs  me  that 
this  spurious  cubeb  is  not  produced  in  Java,  which  is  the  chief  geo- 
graphical source  of  the  genuine  article.  If  the  locality  for  genuine 
cubebs  has  been  given  as  Java  in  the  Pharmacopoeia,  this  substitu- 
tion would  obviously  have  been  avoidable. 
Copaiba. — A  few  months  since  an  article  was  imported  under  this 
name  from  West  Africa.  It  was  found  by  Mr.  J.  C.  Umney,  {Pharm. 
Jour.  [3],  xvii,  p.  449)  to  possess  in  many  respects  physical  and 
chemical  properties  similar  to  those  of  the  genuine  drug,  but  no 
one  who  has  compared  the  taste  of  the  two  drugs  or  of  the  prepara- 
tions made  from  them  would  be  likely  to  consider  them  identical. 
Yet  the  retail  chemist  who  judged  the  article  by  the  appearance 
alone,  might  easily  be  misled.  The  Pharmacopoeia  gives  no  geo- 
graphical source  for  balsam  of  copaiba,  so  that  in  the  absence  of 
any  evidence  to  show  that  it  was  not  produced  by  "any  species  of 
Copaifera,"  it  might  be  legally  admissible,  though  it  might  differ  in 
physiological  action. 
Jaborandi. — When  Pernambuco  jaborandi  was  first  introduced  I 
pointed  out  that  some  of  the  articles  in  commerce  appeared  to  con- 
sist of  the  leaves  of  P.  Selloanus,  a  native  of  Southern  Brazil. 
Makers  of  the  alkaloid  pilocarpine  soon  found  out  that  there  was  a 
considerable  difference  in  the  percentage  contained  in  different 
