Association for the present year; Prof. R. H. Thurston, of the Stevens Technological Institute, Hoboken, Vice-President of the Physical Section; Prof. Augustus R. Grote, Vice-President of the Section of Natural History; Prof. H. Carrington Bolton, of Columbia College, New York, General Secretary; Prof. Francis E. Nipher, St. Louis University, Secretary of Section A; George Little, Atlanta, Georgia, Secretary of Section B; William S. Vaux, Philadelphia, Treasurer; chairman of Chemical Sub-section, Prof. P. W. Clarke, of the University of Cincinnati. The Association will meet next year in St. Louis, on the third Wednesday of August. The address of Prof. O. C. Marsh, as Vice-President of Section B, at the Nashville meeting, on the "Introduction and Succession of Vertebrate Life in America," was a paper of extraordinary interest, embodying the results of its author's fruitful researches into the paleontology of this continent. Prof. Grote advocated the creation of an International Scientific Service, or organization for the advancement of knowledge. We shall in future numbers of the Monthly publish abstracts of some of the more interesting papers read at this meeting of the Association.
The Cinchona Alkaloids.—Of all the species of cinchona-trees planted in the Nilgiri Hills district of India, the red-bark, or C. succirubra, has succeeded best; indeed, none of the other species appear to thrive in the Nilgiri plantations, and they are rapidly giving way before the red-bark cinchona-tree. The bark of the latter contains only a small proportion of the alkaloid quinine as compared with the other three principal alkaloids—cinchonine, cinchonidine, and quinidine—and hence the promise of an abundant supply of the first-named alkaloid from the Indian plantations is not fulfilled. Hence, if the febrifuge properties of the cinchona were confined to the alkaloid quinine, we should have to pronounce these plantations a failure. But it appears to be still an open question whether quinine is entitled to this preëminence. Indeed, there is good reason for believing that the kind of bark which earned for the cinchona-tree its reputation had for its predominant alkaloid cinchonidine. Within a few years, medical commissions have been appointed in Madras and Bombay to determine the respective values of the four alkaloids as febrifuges. The result arrived at by the Madras commission, as stated by Dr. B. H. Paul, in a paper read before the London Society of Arts, was to the effect that, "in recent cases of uncomplicated paroxysmal fever, there did not seem to be any great superiority of one cinchona alkaloid over another." The numerical results on which the commission founded its conclusions were as follows:
| Cured. | ||||
| Treated | by | cinchonine | 410 | 400 |
| " | " | cinchonidine | 359 | 346 |
| " | " | quinidine | 376 | 365 |
In subsequent trials these alkaloids were compared with quinine, and the total number of cases treated was 2,472, and of these 2,445 were cured. The ratio of failure per 1,000 cases was as follows:
| Quinine | 7.092 |
| Quinidine | 6.024 |
| Cinchonidine | 9.925 |
| Cinchonine | 23.255 |
Which appears to show that the first three are nearly equal in their febrifuge properties.
Treatment of the Opium-Habit.—The English Church Mission supports at Hangchow, China, an "opium-refuge," or hospital for the treatment of smokers of opium. The capacity of this hospital, as we learn from the Journal of Inebriety, is for about thirty patients, and there are generally about as many applications for admission as can be granted. Persons wishing to be admitted make their applications on or before the beginning of a month; all the patients for one month being admitted on the same day, and remaining in the hospital for three weeks. In this way, twelve classes of patients are turned out each year, and there is one week in each month for cleansing the hospital. The treatment is directed simply to relieving the malaise and depression caused by discontinuance of opium, and the physician in charge states that at the end of three weeks the patients can entirely dispense with the drug without physical inconvenience. One strange fact is developed by this benevolent enterprise. Some of the patients enter the refuge without any desire of giving up opium. They have gone so far that a large quantity is required to satisfy
