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THE SOURCE AND CONSTITUENTS OF CHAULMOOGRA OIL AND HYDNOCARPUS OIL.
982 is some truth both in Mr. Brewer’s contention and also in the claim for superior physical conditions with high barometric pressure. At the same time we are of opinion, after careful reading of the papers upon the subject that have been read during the last two years before the Odontological Society and the British Dental Association, that too much stress may be laid upon the weather. We do not consider that, except in the rarest instances, barometric pressure is an item of such importance that it should weigh against other indications in deciding an anaesthetist’s mode of procedure ; indeed, and we should think but poorly of an administrator who, other conditions being favourable, failed to secure a good nitrous oxide anaesthesia, even though it was "raining cats and dogs," with the barometer at 28 inches. ____
THE
SOURCE AND CONSTITUENTS OF CHAULMOOGRA OIL AND HYDNOCARPUS OIL.
THE pharmacology of chaulmoogra oil was recently referred to in a correspondence in the columns of THE LANCET,1 where it was pointed out that there was some doubt as to the source and active principle of the Researches by Dr. F. B. oil as used in this country. Power and Mr. M. Barrowcliff2(of a later date than any referred to by our correspondents) have thrown considerIn an earlier communication able light on the subject. Dr. Power and Mr. F. H. Gornall showed that the oil obtained from authentic seeds of Taraktogenos Kurzii is identical in its physical and chemical properties with the chaulmoogra oil of commerce. It consists chiefly of the glyceryl esters of members of a homologous series of a new type, isolated and designated one of which was and acid. Dr. Power Mr. Barrowcliff now chaulmoogric been known in Europe that oil has the which prove long as chaulmoogra oil or gynocardia oil has never been obtained, as hitherto believed, from the seeds of Gynocardia odorata. Chaulmoogra oil, as met with in this country, is solid at ordinary temperatures, whereas the oil from the seeds of Gynocardia odorata is a liquid. Furthermore, chaulmoogra oil is optically active and consists chiefly of the glyceryl -esters of members of the chaulmoogric acid series, whereas the oil from gynocardia seeds is optically inactive and contains neither chaulmoogric acid nor its homologues. Gynocardia seeds contain, in addition to the fatty oil, 5 per cent. of a crystalline glucoside, gynocardin, and a hydrolytic enzyme, gynocardase. The oil itself consists of linolic acid or isomerides of the same series, constituting the largest proportion of the oil ; palmitic acid, in considerable amount ; linolenic and isolinolenic acids, and a small quantity of oleic acid. The fatty oil from two species of Hydnocarpus belonging to the same natural order as Taraktogenos has long been used in western India and in China for the same medicinal purposes for which chaulmoogra oil is employed. Hydrzoearpus wightiana (Blume) is a tree indigenous to the western peninsula of India and yields an oil which has been used as a substitute for chaulmoogra oil in the Bombay Presidency with satisfactory results. Hydnocarpus anthelmintiana (Pierre) is a tree indigenous to Siam, the seeds of which are exported to China under the name lukra bo" " and are known in the latter country as "ta-fung-tsze." Dr. Power and Mr. Barrowcliff have examined the oils from these two species of Hydnocarpus and have found them to bear a close resemblance to chaulmoogra oil in their physical characters and chemical composition. The acids obtained from the hydnocarpus oils consist chiefly of chaulmoogric acid and a lower homologue of the same series, the latter having been isolated also from chaulmoogra .oil. This new acid has been designated hydnocarpic acid. The chemical properties of chaulmoogric and allied oils 2
1 THE LANCET, August 19th, 1905, p. 570. Journal of the Chemical Society, June, 1905, pp.
884-900.
have now been fully investigated and the way is paved for a pharmacological examination of these oils and their constituents. ____
THE
EARTHQUAKES
IN
CALABRIA.
dreaded has happened," writes an Italian "WHAT correspondent. "The autumnal rainfall, as copious as it is continuous in the second half of September throughout Southern Italy, has come to aggravate the sufferings of earthquake-visited Calabria. The population, even when accommodated under the hastily constructed shelter of canvas tents and wooden shanties, has been deprived of this partial protection ; thanks to the torrential downpour, reinforced in some quarters by wind rising to a gale, it has seen its frail tenements either reduced to pulp or swept clean away, and it is now no better off than the majority of its number who still bivouac in the open. Food and clothing are thus in most cases the only means available for maintaining the struggle for existence, until the relief operations, often enough carried out with more zeal than discretion, make good the damage and the loss which wind and rain have added to earthquake. The situation is in the last degree deplorable and its difficulties are already evoking recrimination between this or that contingent, official or amateur, of the relief force. Even when these are working in comparative harmony they have still some fault to find and they now complain of the population itself as listless, apathetic, and idle, lending no cooperating hand to their benefactors even in the work of tenement construction, much less in that of removing and cremating the dead. Such censure, however, is made in ignorance of the peculiar psychological effects induced by visitations like those of earthquakes-the survivors of which are for long periods thereafter the prey to a depression, moral and intellectual, akin to acute melancholia-the faculties benumbed, all initiative arrested, and a condition of’pantophobia’ set up, alternating between gusts of panic and the hebetude of reaction. This must be accepted in explanation of the moral atony complained of in these sorely visited Calabresi and ought to inspire the relief parties to follow up the noble example of the King with all the more energy, emulating thelight address and the cheery stoicism’ which he combines with ‘present aid,’ so infusing confidence for the passing day and hope for the future. Characteristically enough, it is the relief contingents from the Alta Italia-from Piedmont, Liguria, and Lombardy-that are most successful in meeting the exigencies of the situation. The virile north imparts something’ of its strength to the emotional and less robust south and the three committees, hailing respectively from Turin, Genoa, and Milan, by coöperating on a well concerted and well-sustained plan are already working asalutary contagion’ on the other contingents, particularly those from the southern provinces. ’Moral rehabilitation, following on sustenance and shelter’such is the watchword of the three combined committees referred to, and a glance at the previous history of these Calabresi suffices to show its significance and its value. Heavily hit in their special industry by the olive grub (the musca olearia) and the phylloxera and buoyed up with ’pie-crust promises’ of Government aid made by the politicians who courted them, they had oscillated between damage and disappointment till the heart had been wellnigh taken out of them for prolonging their struggle on the soil. Emigration is the resource most favoured among the more enterprising and now that the earthquake has completed their ruin they have lost all affection for the birthplace which has proved such anI injusta noverca..’ so that , voluntary exile oversea’ is almost irresistible in its abtraotions. Theseismic tradition’ which clings to their native soil, accentuated and intensified by recent tragic experience, was
,
THE
SOURCE AND CONSTITUENTS OF CHAULMOOGRA OIL AND HYDNOCARPUS OIL.
THE pharmacology of chaulmoogra oil was recently referred to in a correspondence in the columns of THE LANCET,1 where it was pointed out that there was some doubt as to the source and active principle of the Researches by Dr. F. B. oil as used in this country. Power and Mr. M. Barrowcliff2(of a later date than any referred to by our correspondents) have thrown considerIn an earlier communication able light on the subject. Dr. Power and Mr. F. H. Gornall showed that the oil obtained from authentic seeds of Taraktogenos Kurzii is identical in its physical and chemical properties with the chaulmoogra oil of commerce. It consists chiefly of the glyceryl esters of members of a homologous series of a new type, isolated and designated one of which was and acid. Dr. Power Mr. Barrowcliff now chaulmoogric been known in Europe that oil has the which prove long as chaulmoogra oil or gynocardia oil has never been obtained, as hitherto believed, from the seeds of Gynocardia odorata. Chaulmoogra oil, as met with in this country, is solid at ordinary temperatures, whereas the oil from the seeds of Gynocardia odorata is a liquid. Furthermore, chaulmoogra oil is optically active and consists chiefly of the glyceryl -esters of members of the chaulmoogric acid series, whereas the oil from gynocardia seeds is optically inactive and contains neither chaulmoogric acid nor its homologues. Gynocardia seeds contain, in addition to the fatty oil, 5 per cent. of a crystalline glucoside, gynocardin, and a hydrolytic enzyme, gynocardase. The oil itself consists of linolic acid or isomerides of the same series, constituting the largest proportion of the oil ; palmitic acid, in considerable amount ; linolenic and isolinolenic acids, and a small quantity of oleic acid. The fatty oil from two species of Hydnocarpus belonging to the same natural order as Taraktogenos has long been used in western India and in China for the same medicinal purposes for which chaulmoogra oil is employed. Hydrzoearpus wightiana (Blume) is a tree indigenous to the western peninsula of India and yields an oil which has been used as a substitute for chaulmoogra oil in the Bombay Presidency with satisfactory results. Hydnocarpus anthelmintiana (Pierre) is a tree indigenous to Siam, the seeds of which are exported to China under the name lukra bo" " and are known in the latter country as "ta-fung-tsze." Dr. Power and Mr. Barrowcliff have examined the oils from these two species of Hydnocarpus and have found them to bear a close resemblance to chaulmoogra oil in their physical characters and chemical composition. The acids obtained from the hydnocarpus oils consist chiefly of chaulmoogric acid and a lower homologue of the same series, the latter having been isolated also from chaulmoogra .oil. This new acid has been designated hydnocarpic acid. The chemical properties of chaulmoogric and allied oils 2
1 THE LANCET, August 19th, 1905, p. 570. Journal of the Chemical Society, June, 1905, pp.
884-900.
have now been fully investigated and the way is paved for a pharmacological examination of these oils and their constituents. ____
THE
EARTHQUAKES
IN
CALABRIA.
dreaded has happened," writes an Italian "WHAT correspondent. "The autumnal rainfall, as copious as it is continuous in the second half of September throughout Southern Italy, has come to aggravate the sufferings of earthquake-visited Calabria. The population, even when accommodated under the hastily constructed shelter of canvas tents and wooden shanties, has been deprived of this partial protection ; thanks to the torrential downpour, reinforced in some quarters by wind rising to a gale, it has seen its frail tenements either reduced to pulp or swept clean away, and it is now no better off than the majority of its number who still bivouac in the open. Food and clothing are thus in most cases the only means available for maintaining the struggle for existence, until the relief operations, often enough carried out with more zeal than discretion, make good the damage and the loss which wind and rain have added to earthquake. The situation is in the last degree deplorable and its difficulties are already evoking recrimination between this or that contingent, official or amateur, of the relief force. Even when these are working in comparative harmony they have still some fault to find and they now complain of the population itself as listless, apathetic, and idle, lending no cooperating hand to their benefactors even in the work of tenement construction, much less in that of removing and cremating the dead. Such censure, however, is made in ignorance of the peculiar psychological effects induced by visitations like those of earthquakes-the survivors of which are for long periods thereafter the prey to a depression, moral and intellectual, akin to acute melancholia-the faculties benumbed, all initiative arrested, and a condition of’pantophobia’ set up, alternating between gusts of panic and the hebetude of reaction. This must be accepted in explanation of the moral atony complained of in these sorely visited Calabresi and ought to inspire the relief parties to follow up the noble example of the King with all the more energy, emulating thelight address and the cheery stoicism’ which he combines with ‘present aid,’ so infusing confidence for the passing day and hope for the future. Characteristically enough, it is the relief contingents from the Alta Italia-from Piedmont, Liguria, and Lombardy-that are most successful in meeting the exigencies of the situation. The virile north imparts something’ of its strength to the emotional and less robust south and the three committees, hailing respectively from Turin, Genoa, and Milan, by coöperating on a well concerted and well-sustained plan are already working asalutary contagion’ on the other contingents, particularly those from the southern provinces. ’Moral rehabilitation, following on sustenance and shelter’such is the watchword of the three combined committees referred to, and a glance at the previous history of these Calabresi suffices to show its significance and its value. Heavily hit in their special industry by the olive grub (the musca olearia) and the phylloxera and buoyed up with ’pie-crust promises’ of Government aid made by the politicians who courted them, they had oscillated between damage and disappointment till the heart had been wellnigh taken out of them for prolonging their struggle on the soil. Emigration is the resource most favoured among the more enterprising and now that the earthquake has completed their ruin they have lost all affection for the birthplace which has proved such anI injusta noverca..’ so that , voluntary exile oversea’ is almost irresistible in its abtraotions. Theseismic tradition’ which clings to their native soil, accentuated and intensified by recent tragic experience, was
,