MAGNIFIED VIEW OF FRUIT OF FOOL'S PARSLEY.
(Drawn from the Microscope).

A. A cremocarp. sural surface.

B. A mericarp, viewed from its inner or commisC. Longitudinal section of mericarp.

D. Transverse

BY MR. ROBERT CLARKE,

Senior Assistant Surgeon to the Colony of Sierra Leone.

THE tree which furnishes the nuts from which Tallicoonah or Kundah oil is procured, is found growing abundantly in the Timneh country and over the colony. At the village of Kent, near Cape Schilling, the oil is manufactured as follows:-The nuts are dried in the sun, then hung up in wicker racks or hurdles, and exposed to the smoke of the huts; when exposed for a sufficient time, the nuts are roasted and subjected to trituration in large wooden mortars until reduced to a pulp. The mass is then boiled, when the supernatant oil is removed by skimming. The natives principally manufacture the oil to afford light; the leaves are used by the Kroomen as a thatch.

I believe the medicinal properties of Tallicoonah or Kundah oil are unknown in Europe. Among the liberated Africans, the Sherbros and Soosoos, the oil is held in high estimation as an anthelmintic, the negroes and all classes of the colonists being very subject to worms. The sort of worms for which Tallicoonah or Kundah Oil proves efficacious are the tape, lumbicus, and ascarides, more especially the two former; administered, however, in the form of enemata, the oil is successful in bringing away great numbers of the latter. When em

ployed as an enema, one or two ounces may be thrown into the bowels, dissolved in warm water, of a temperature sufficient to retain it in the liquid state. I have used it in large doses (as

much as ziss) in "Lethargus," a disease of the brain in which it is desirable to act on the bowels with the most powerful drastic purgatives. Some of the colonists are in the habit of mixing with the palm and nut oils used to afford light, a portion of Tallicoonah oil, to prevent their servants from using the oil with their food.

I have employed it in cases of worms, or where I suspected their existence, in doses proportionate to the age and strength of the patient. In such cases the dose has ranged from one ounce to one drachm, fluid measure. It is here necessary to observe, that its purgative effects were by no means always uniform. In persons of weak habit of body, and in whom there existed any liability to bowel complaints, the Tallicoonah oil, from its acrid bitter properties, would prove injurious; but in persons in the opposite condition of body, I can confidently recommend this medicine as a safe and powerful anthelmintic. The usual way I have administered the oil is precisely similar to the modes in which castor or the other fixed oil are given. If given in proper doses, its purgative effects bear a close resemblance to those of castor oil, both in the length of time that elapses before its operation, and in the bulk of the stools produced. When over doses are taken, it produces the most violent hypercarthasis, cold sweats and vomiting, succeeded by collapse, and if remedial means are not promptly employed, even death. I may observe, that the negroes also use it as an expectorant. The best specimens are liquid, but it is more generally found concrete. The tree grows to the height of forty feet, the nuts being contained in a multelocular capsule. The oil is sold in the colony at two shillings a gallon, and could be procured in abundance from the coast as an article of commerce. I could spare to any of your medical friends, who wish to administer this oil as a remedy, a small quantity. I expect shortly to receive specimens of the root, stem, and leaf, and will forward them on their arrival.†

London, 28th Sept. 1842,

63, Vauxhall Walk, Lambeth.

REMARKS ON THE ABOVE PAPER, BY DR. PEREIRA.

"THE 'nuts' described in Mr. Clarke's paper, are the seeds of the Carapa Touloucouna of the Flore de Sénégambie, a Meliaceous plant, figured in Sweet's British Flower Garden (i. 72), and growing in dry places near Itou, on the shores of the Casamancia. The fruit is a large somewhat globular five-celled capsule. The seeds (of which there are from eighteen to thirty in

* See London Medical Gazette, Sept. 18, 1840. + We have just received the specimens.-ED.

each capsule) vary in size from that of a chestnut to a hen's egg: they are three-cornered, convex on the dorsal surface, of a brownish or blackish red colour, and rugous. Specimens of the seeds with the fruit, are contained in the Banksian Collection at the British Museum. In the Flore de Sénégambie, the expressed oil of the seeds is called Huile de Touloucouna, and it is described as being sometimes liquid, sometimes solid according to the variable quantities of oleine and strearine which it contains. A notice of its uses is said to be contained in the Ann. de la Societé Linnéenne de Paris, for May, 1824, but I have had no opportunity of consulting this work. The oil owes its bitterness to an alkaloid principle, which MM. Petroz and Robinet (Journal de Pharmacie, t. vii. p. 48), found also in the bark of the tree." Mr. Redwood observed, that he had made a few experiments to determine some of the most prominent characters of the oil.He found it to be entirely soluble in ether, and that alcohol separated it into two parts, a concrete substance, which was dissolved, and an oil fluid at ordinary temperatures, on which the alcohol took no effect. The former contained the bitter principle and the nauseous odour of the oil, the latter was nearly colourless and tasteless.

Some GELATINE CAPSULES, contrived by Mr. Chaston of Walton, in Norfolk, for administering fluid medicines to HORSES and DOGS, were exhibited to the meeting. They were open at one extremity, which required a covering of skin, after the introduction of the fluid. It is scarcely necessary to add, that if water be introduced, they should be administered in the course of a few minutes; but they are chiefly adapted for the administration of spirit of turpentine, or any other substance in which gelatine is insoluble. The horse capsules are about the size of an ordinary horse-ball, and when wrapped up in paper in the usual way, have a similar appearance.

A specimen of FALSE ANGUSTURA BARK, presented to the Society by Dr. Neligan, of Dublin, was on the table. It is the bark of the Strychnos Nux Vomica, and was a few years ago introduced into Germany in considerable quantities, which brought Angustura bark into disrepute.* Among the visitors at the meeting, were Professor Mitscherlich and M. Nordmann, of Berlin.

The Chairman announced that Mr. Redwood, having been prevented by indisposition from addressing the Society on the 28th of last month, would deliver a lecture on the 26th instant, on Heat as a Pharmaceutical Agent.

A history of this transaction, and notices of the accidents to which it gave rise, are contained in Dr. Pereira's Elements of Materia Medica, vol. ii., page 1291, et seq. 2d. edition.

Husson sur de l'Eau Médicinale

The London Medical Repository, from the year? MR. BELL

1814 to 1826 inclusive, 28 vols.

DONATIONS TO THE MUSEUM.

MR. PAYNE.-HORTUS SICCUS; containing 215 specimens of British plants, and all the indigenous officinals of the London Pharmacopœia, 1837. MESSRS. GODFREY AND COOKE.-Galbanum, in massis-Galbanum, in lachrymis Gummi tacamahaccæ-Opoponax, in lachrymis-Resina elemi -Euphorbium-Hydrargyri oxidum rubrum per se-Lycopodium. MR. GIFFORD, Strand.-Myristica officinalis (fructus).

MESSRS. WRIGHT AND Co., Edward Street.-Aloë Socotrina-Aloë hepatica-Aloë de Mochâ-Resina scammonii-Scammonium, No. 2 (virgin)— Ditto, No. 3-Ditto, No. 4-Ditto, No. 5.

MR. SMITH, Hampstead.-Fresh plant of Valerian.

MESSRS. HOWARD AND Co., Stratford.-Æther sulphuricus

Oleum

æthereum Spiritus ætheris nitrici Spiritus ammonia aromaticus Liquor ammonia-Liquor ammoniæ fortior-Linimentum camphora compositum-Ammonia sesquicarbonas-Creta præcipitata-Calcii chloridum -Potassæ carbonas-Potasse bicarbonas-Magnesia calcinata - Magnesia calcinata ponderosa--Magnesia carbonas ponderosa-Pulvis antimonii compositus Bismuthi trisnitras-Quinæ disulphas-Argenti nitrasHydrargyri ammonio-chloridum-Ferri ammonio-chloridum.

MESSRS. DAVY, MACMURDO, AND Co.-Folia diosma crenata-Radix jalapa (spurious)-Hydrargyri chloridum--Hydrargyri nitrico-oxydumAcidum oxalicum-Potassæ superoxalas-Potassæ chloras-Potassii iodidum-Barii chloridum-Calcis carbonas præcipitatum-Zinci oxydum præcipitatum-Zinci oxydum sublimatum-Morphiæ acetas-Morphiæ hydrochloras-Morphia sulphas-Ferri sesquioxydum-Sulphur præcipitatumOleum Valeriana--Oleum acori calami.

MR. HULSE, Leadenhall Street.-Cydonia vulgaris (fructus et folia).

MR. C. J. HODGSON, Park Lane.-Crystal of Rock Salt, from Nantwich, Cheshire-Native Lead, from Havod, North Wales-Washed Lead, from ditto-Copper Ore, from Snowdon-Crystal of Quartz.

MR. THOMAS HUXTABLE, St. John's Street.-Sanguis draconis-Ichthyocolla (long staple)

MR. R. CLARKE, Sierra Leone.-Carassa Touloucouna, (root, stem, leaves. seeds, and oil).

MR. COCKING, Great Portland Street.-Five jars, containing snakes.

MR. BELL.-Gummi, tragacantha (bad)-Asafoetida (bad)-Cambogia (rather bad)-Radices, columbæ (ordinary)-Ditto (rather bad)--China (ordinary)-Ditto (unsound)-Galange-Ginseng-Helenii-Ipecacuanhæ (second quality)- Zedoaria-Rhei China (bad) - Fructus anisi (good) -Ditto (bad)-Extractum aloes purificatum (P.L.)-Residue from preparation of ditto-Fine Crystal of Rock Salt (colourless)—Ditto (impure)-Betel nuts-Ditto (charred)-Honey-comb-Honey.

The most acceptable donations to the Museum would now be, specimens of Drugs of inferior quality, to exhibit in contrast with the fine specimens already received.

ON THE PHENOMENA OF FERMENTATION.

BY GEORGE FOWNES, PII. D.

Lecturer on Chemistry at Charing Cross Hospital.

HAVING in a former paper discussed the general nature and character of the phenomena comprehended under the name "fermentation," together with the beautiful explanation of these changes proposed by Liebig, I now proceed to examine a little more closely the subject of the "vinous fermentation," the sole source and origin of alcohol.

It will be remembered that the principle of the explanation above alluded to is the following:

All chemical compounds owe their permanence and stability to the attractive forces, whatever the real nature of these may be, which retain in intimate union their components; and the amount of this stability, or indisposition to undergo molecular change, will be in direct proportion to the forces exerted. Now it must always happen, when a number of different elements are presented to each other, and external circumstances do not interfere, that union will take place between them in the direction of the strongest attractions, giving rise to compounds, which, under the circumstances, are stable and not prone to decomposition.

This is clearly what may be called the common order of things, an order usually followed in all inorganic combinations; the case is, however, widely different when we come to consider the almost countless multitudes of substances included within the domain of organic chemistry; substances which all have had their origin either directly or indirectly under the influence of vitality-perhaps, to speak, in strict terms, under the sway of vegetable life, since we have every reason to believe, at the present moment, that the animal system has no more power to create out of their elements bodies of this class, than we have to do the same thing in our laboratories; its power, like our own, being confined to the mere modification of organic principles already existing, and which were, in the first instance, really and truly made out of the atmosphere by living plants. It is obvious, then, that we have here a new set of conditions totally different from those commonly existing, and the result of this difference is shewn in the peculiarities of molecular arrangement in the elements of the substances in question. Combination here no longer occurs in simple obedience to the law of strongest attraction, but often, on the contrary, in such a way as to leave unsatisfied, as it were, some of the most energetic powers, and to produce a body which, when withdrawn from the protection of PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL, March 1842, p. 478.

VOL. II.

2 c