This bean, known as the ordeal bean of Calabar, is a very rare plant of the leguminous order, grown only in the King's garden. It was introduced to Dr. Christison some years ago by a missionary named Waddel. Dr. Christison described certain poisonous properties peculiar to it, in the "Pharmaceutical Journal," ten or twelve years back; but the special properties in producing a contraction of the pupil have only recently attracted the attention of ophthalmic surgeons. Dr. Argyle Robertson, Dr. Frazer, Dr. George Harley, Mr. L. Woolcott, Mr. Selberg Wells, all concur in proving it to be of some value in ophthalmic practice, as an anti-medreatic or contractor of the pupil. Its physiological effects are apparently directly opposed to those of belladonna. It may thus counteract the disagreeable and frequently too prolonged action of the solution of atropine in ordinary use in dilating the pupil previous to, and for assisting in, ophthalmoscopic examination.

Mr. J. Woolcott, of the Kent County Ophthalmic Hospital, one of the earliest observers in England, will shortly publish his cases, and it is hoped will confirm the facts by cases and observations.

MATERIA MEDICA AND THERAPEUTICS.

The "New Pharmacopoeia."-The "New Pharmacopoeia"-that is, the "British Pharmacopoeia"-is now almost ready for publication, the proofsheets having been laid before the General Medical Council. The labour upon this work is immense; it has occupied for some years gentlemen associated with the Edinburgh, Dublin, and London Colleges of Physicians, and with other learned bodies connected with pharmacy. Professor Garrod is the secretary to their committee. This work will form what has long been wanted-a truly national pharmacopoeia.

The President of the Pharmaceutical Society, Peter Squire, F.L.S., &c., has just published a work called the "Pharmacopoeia of Thirteen of the London Hospitals." It is so arranged in groups for easy comparison with the formulæ of various hospitals, that in future it will be interesting to compare them with the forthcoming work above mentioned, to which it will form a most valuable supplement.

Quinine in India.-To those persons who are watching with interest the growth of quinine in India, it will be gratifying to know that quinine and the other alkaloids known as tonics and useful for their febrifuge properties, have been extracted from the barks of the cinchonas of two years' growth from the Neilgherry Hills. It has been found that the per-centage of quinine, cinchonidine, and cinchonine is as great as can be obtained from the bark of the South American produce.*

Anaesthetics.-As an anesthetic, chloroform has not yet fully satisfied the expectations of the profession. A committee of some of the members of the Medico-Chirurgical Society has been appointed, and is now actively engaged in experimental inquiries as to the uses, effects, and best modes of administering chloroform. The main object which the committee has in view, is to inquire not only into the practice of employing chloroform by inhalation for surgical operations and in midwifery practice, but to ascertain its

See also Chemical Summary.

results in the treatment of many diseases, such as tetanus, delirium tremens, asthma, epilepsy, hysteria, infantile convulsions, &c.

Flame-proof or Non-Inflammable Fabrics.-The frequency of accidental death by burning, more especially since crinolines have been in fashion, has given rise to experiments in this country and in France to determine the best means of rendering dresses flame-proof. The most recent researches are by Westerman and Oppenheim, which show that solutions of the salts of sulphate of ammonia, phosphate of ammonia, and tungstate of soda, are those that can be used with greatest facility. For rendering tissues uninflammable these salts combine the conditions of cheapness, and harmlessness to the gloss, colour, and structure of the tissue. The solution may be used in the proportion of one-third the weight of starch, or from 15 to 20 per cent of water. The tungstate of soda appears to have the advantage of the two other preparations, for with starch it forms a better stiffening, and is less liable to be decomposed by the smoothing iron.

Permanganate of Potash as a Deodorizer.—It cannot be too well known that the permanganate of potash is one of the best disinfecting and deodorizing liquids in use. Half a drachm to eight ounces of distilled water are the proportions in which it may be used. It is far superior to any of the chlorine preparations--not so transient in its effects. Suppurating sores, offensive discharges from wounds, ulcers, &c., the removal of bad smells from the nose, breath, and feet, or from carious teeth, and for postmortem examinations, &c., are some of the more prominent uses to which this solution has been recently applied.

A New Disinfectant.-Charcoal, which has been long known for its antiseptic properties, is now ingeniously used in the form of charcoal paper, or charcoal lint. The carboniferous paper may be applied to ulcerated surfaces, to absorb and at the same time deodorize the liquid discharges, thus preventing the bed from being soiled. The carboniferous paper may be applied to indolent ulcers with good effect. Messrs. Maw & Sons, in London, are agents for the French inventors of this novel preparation of charcoal.

The Ergot of Wheat.-The ergot of wheat may be used as a substitute for the ergot of rye, and possesses some advantages over it. M. Laperdriel, of the College of Pharmacy of Montpellier, has read a paper on this subject, in which he points out the fact that ergot of wheat has all the medicinal properties of the ergot of rye, with the advantage of resisting decay and moisture, hence may be preserved a long time. The ergot of rye is well known to be easily damaged by damp air, and is soon destroyed by mites.

Galvanism as a Remedial Agent.-Mr. Harry Lobb, surgeon to the London Galvanic Hospital, read a paper before the Harveian Society on the uses and value of galvanism and electricity in general practice. As a therapeutic agent, galvanism promises some good results, although they are not yet fully recognized in the profession, but which Mr. Lobb has full confidence will at no distant period be as familiar to every well-educated practitioner in the treatment of disease, as is now the administration of drugs. The judicious administration of galvanism has

VOL. II.-NO. VIII.

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produced results in the treatment of disease that remain no longer to be doubted.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Poisonous Mushrooms.-The Academy of Medicine in Paris proposes to offer again, in 1864, the Orfila Prize of £100 for the best essay on poisonous mushrooms. Last year three unsuccessful competitors were in the field. The points for inquiry are the following: Give their characters, especially such as may be generally appreciated; examine what effects are produced upon the poisonous or eatable qualities by cultivation, climate, seasons, soil, or exposure; how to separate their toxical principles; indicate their physical and chemical properties; show the means of detecting their presence in cases of poisoning; examine whether the poisonous principle can be separated, and the means of procuring this; its action upon the organism, and the remedies that would be opposed to it.

Cottage Hospitals.-These useful institutions, many of which have been established in different parts of the country during the last three years, continue to flourish. The reports that are issued give encouragement for their foundation in other localities, where the poor are very liable to severe accidents, as in some of the mining districts.

Cranley Village Hospital has six beds; thirty patients were admitted last year, and were treated at a cost of £176. 8s. 2d., leaving a balance of income of £49. 6s. 11d. in hand. Each patient cost £5. 17s. 4d.; the maintenance of each bed about £30 per annum. Each patient was under treatment for an average period of two months; and the report shows that a weekly contribution of 3s. 6d. for each patient is almost enough to find food and drugs.

The Water of the Thames.-The question of the purification of the Thames is yet by no means settled; indeed, without some further inquiries and legislation, it may possibly turn out to be a gigantic failure. The District Board of Works of Fulham has memorialized the Metropolitan Board of Works, and made objections to the plan which has been proposed by their Board of deodorizing 9,500,000 gallons daily of the sewage of the western districts of the metropolis at Land's End, Fulham, and casting it into the Thames.

Dr. Letheby has recently issued a report on the waters of the Thames, in which he points out many facts of great value. He finds the middle of the river is invariably charged with a larger proportion of soluble matters than the water near the shores. The saline matters vary from 32 to 100 grains in the gallon; and in certain summer and autumn months, when the evaporation is greatest, it reaches even to 150 grains in the gallon. He finds that when, from a diminished rainfall, the supply of water in the river is mainly from the sea, the mixture of sewage water with the sea water gives rise to a very unpleasant odour and very offensive decomposition. The suspended matters in the water of the river are much increased at the time of the equinoxes. These investigations of Dr. Letheby are worthy of attention in relation to the main-drainage scheme. They show that at certain times of the year the discharge of sewage at Barking Creek will again return with the upward tidal current, and may be prejudicial or dangerous to health from the surface evaporation of so large a bulk of

water in constant agitation. The public, the medical profession, and sanitarians generally ought to watch the proceedings of any board entrusted with such vital interests.

MICROSCOPY.

Structure of the Valves of Pleurosigma.—Dr. Wallich calls attention to the error into which most observers have fallen, in supposing that the diagonal and rectangular series of lines (as the case may be) constitute the portions of the valves which, under the high magnifying powers of the microscope, become convertible into the so-termed dots, beads, or hexagons -the fact being (he says) that the strie seen under the lower powers, if properly exhibited, are never convertible into anything but lines, whereas the dots, beads, and hexagons are the imperfect expositions of the structure occurring in the spaces included between the intersections of those lines. Dr. Wallich always prefers oblique light for the examination, and by its use he concludes that he has ascertained beyond question that the marking on P. angulatum, balticum, &c., is produced by pyramidal sharp faces, and finely acuminate elevations on the surface. He is of opinion that the intervening spaces in P. angulatum and its allies exhibit elevations, but thinks it probable that the corresponding spots on P. hippocampus are occupied by depressions. Dr. Wallich's paper in the "Annals of Natural History" for May, enters very fully into the debated subject, and is worth consulting.

Fermentation produced by Infusoria.-M. Pasteur, in the "Comptes Rendus," confirms a statement laid before the Academy two years since, that there exist infusory animalcules possessing the two properties of living without free oxygen, and of acting as ferments. The new example adduced is the fermentation of tartrate of lime, determined by the presence of an infusory animalcule, existing without free oxygen, and belonging, like that which determines the butyric fermentation, to the genus Vibro. He promises to demonstrate in a future communication that there are other animalcule ferments of putrefaction under exposure to air, which are found associated with infusoria, or mucors, that consume the free oxygen, and fulfil the double purpose of agents of combustion with reference to the organic material, and of agents of preservation for the infusoria ferments, by protecting them from the contact of the ozygen of the air.

The Formation of Infusoria.-Professor Wyman, of Harvard College, has made a series of experiments of a most interesting character, in which the results of Pasteur have been in a great measure negatived. Living organisms made their appearance in many instances where even greater precautions were taken than those mentioned by the French observer. In Wyman's experiments, solutions of organic matter, some of them previously filtered, have been boiled at the ordinary pressure of the atmosphere for a length of time varying from fifteen minutes to two hours, and exposed to air purified by heat. In four instances the contents of the flasks were unchanged at the time they were opened; but in all the rest Vibrios, Bacteriums, and other organisms appeared. In nearly every

instance their presence was indicated, in the early stage of the experiments, by the formation of a film, which took place in some on the second, and in others not till the nineteenth day. The result of the thirty-seven experiments is, that the boiled solutions of organic matter made use of, exposed only to air which has passed through tubes heated to redness, or enclosed with air in hermetically sealed vessels, and exposed to boiling water, became the seat of infusorial life.

The Microscope in Meteorology.-Mr. Sorby has turned the microscope upon meteorites, or rather upon sections of those exotic minerals, with a view to ascertain their origin by close examination of their microscopical structure. The evidence thus far appears to be strong in favour of the conclusion that they are formed by the aggregation of smaller fragments, or minute particles, in which particular they are most nearly resembled, among terrestrial rocks, by consolidated volcanic ashes. Is there anything in this fact of aggregation which touches the nebular hypothesis?

Action of Magenta on Vegetable Tissues.-Mr. J. G. Lynde describes a series of experiments on cuttings of vallisneria immersed in a solution of that dye in glass cells. He finds that, so long as vital action continues, the cell walls and moving chlorophyle retain their green colour, but the injured cells are immediately deeply reddened, and their contents gradually acquire the same colour. Between the cell walls there exists an intercellular membrane of low vitality, which becomes rapidly coloured while the rotation is going on. He further observed what he believed to be traces of cilia, which, when rotation ceased, left irregular markings, either corrugated, or having raised excrescences, which had the appearance which would be produced by cilia falling against the cell wall in various positions upon the suspension of vital action. The chlorophyle vessels appear to resist the action of the magenta for some time after rotation has ceased, indicating a vitality to a certain extent, at least, independent of that of the cell.

New One-twentieth Objective.-Messrs. Smith & Beck have produced a newth objective-glass, which is well spoken of. The definition is described as excellent, and the facility of working equal to that of a low power. The improvements which have recently taken place in optical instruments have thus rendered the use of such a glass not only possible, but desirable, although but a few years back glasses of a much lower power were liable to very considerable working objections. In the present case, a large angle of aperture, combined with flatness of field and perfect correction, render the 7th a lens which will do good service.

New One-twenty-fifth Objective.-Messrs. Powell & Lealand have succeeded in making a -inch object-glass, magnifying 7,500 diameters, and thus enlarging a given area fifty-six million times; but we are unable at present to say anything concerning the working of this optical marvel.

Cheap French Microscope.-M. Chevallier has announced, through the Imperial Academy of Sciences, that he has constructed a compound microscope of 250 magnifying power, which he can supply at the moderate sum of sixty to seventy francs (50s. to 60s.).