1012 T

constituents has been effected in the case of almost at

cultivated plants. He was strongly opposed to the belief

that cultivation impaired a medicinal plant and that wild onesare always and without exception the better, and insistedthat it was unsuitable cultivation only that produced suchbad results. He was convinced that by variation of the condi-tions of cultivation, by careful selection of suitable strainsby crossing, grafting, and other means, brilliant results wouldbe obtained and the object in view ultimately reached. It was

easy to understand Tunmann’s demand that an experimentalgarden, in which pharmaco-physiological experiments couldbe systematically conducted, should be attached to everypharmacognostical institute, for the required knowledgewould have to be acquired under such conditions. Proceed-

ing to refer to some of the unsolved problems of pharma-cology, he said the fields which were open to purepharmacognosy and were capable of experimental treatmentwere very numerous and very varied. In most of them thefirst sod had only just been turned. In this connexion he

alluded to the methods of preparing harvested drugs,especially the so-called fermentation, which must assuredlybe systematically investigated, if possible, in one of the

tropical laboratories. We are as yet but very imperfectlyacquainted with the chemical reactions involved. We do

not know either the nature or the extent of the part playedby the ferments. At the present time the whole process ofthe fermentation of tea, cocoa, and vanilla is conductedon a wholly empirical basis, and the result depends moreor less on chance, which will remain the case until we

have learned how to place this process on a scientific

basis and to conduct it rationally. Other problems are to befound in the study of physiological varieties and the sub-stances they produce. We are still, to mention one instanceonly, ignorant of the reason why the balsam of the Tolutree, which is scarcely to be distinguished botanically from the balsam of Peru tree, should yield such an entirelydifferent product. These are only a few of the many problemsof pharmacognosy which are susceptible of experimentaltreatment to which Dr. Tschirch alluded.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH WORKIN TASMANIA.

THE creation of a public health department for a scatteredpopulation of 179,000 persons must have been an arduoustask, and the fact that considerable opposition had to beencountered increases our respect for the business capacityof the organiser. The population in question consisted ofthe inhabitants of the island of Tasmania where the depart-ment came into existence on Jan. 6th, 1904, under a

Public Health Act which had passed the legislaturelate in 1903. The Government at the same time ap-

pointed Dr. J. S. C. Elkington to be chief health

officer in whom the central powers of administrationwere vested. Up to that time the executive sanitaryauthority, if such it could be called, had been the CentralBoard of Health which did not employ either a medical

officer or a sanitary inspector. No laboratory existed andthe disinfecting apparatus, apart from what had been

improvised during a recent epidemic of small-pox at Launceston, comprised a couple of formalin lamps and asmall stock of chemicals. The library consisted of one

book on sewage disposal and an old set of Tasmanian

statutes. The port health inspection of over-sea ships was entrusted to pilots or harbour masters, and the maritime ]

quarantine station was a remarkable example of structural 1

defects. The heavy cost of the small-pox outbreak and the 1

efforts of opponents to sanitary reform rendered Parliament disinclined to incur the further outlay required for effectiveequipment and maintenance, but it fortunately happened :

L that the Minister of the day was a medical man and theTasmanian medical profession gave much support to a

system of reform. The population of 179,000 persons was atthe time divided up under some 73 local authorities, 28of which existed in name only, without any officers or

organisation, and some had never held a meeting. Of: the remaining 45 local authorities only 16 had officers of

health, and 26, whose districts included towns of 500inhabitants and over, had no system of night-soil disposal.A reorganisation of these local authorities was commencedin 1905, and at present the local sanitary administrationoutside the two cities (Hobart and Launceston) is

vested in 49 municipal councils which possess exten-sive powers of sanitary rating and administration. In

1906 an investigation was made into the physical condi-

tion of some 1200 State school children at Hobart by Mr.A. H. Clarke and Dr. Elkington, and in the ensuing year asystem of medical inspection of schools for Tasmania wasintroduced, but food inspection, being left by the Act entirelyto local authorities, is practically a dead letter. The cost of

central sanitary administration has averaged a little more than2½d. per head of population per year. In conclusion, Dr.Elkington says that the work of his department has receivedthe generous and hearty support of the Governmentwhenever financial exigencies have permitted it ; healso believes that the great majority of local authoritiesnow admit that the requirements of the departmentare reasonable. The equipment at the disposal of thecentral authority now consists of a fairly well fitted-upbacteriological laboratory, a reference library of severalhundred volumes, a portable steam disinfector, and apparatusfor disinfection on a larger scale. A sanitary inspector has alsobeen appointed and all over-sea vessels are visited by medicalofficers before receiving pratique. It is evident that publichealth questions have become better understood in Tasmania

during the last six years. -ADRENALIN AS AN EMERGENCY TREATMENT IN

CERTAIN FORMS OF NON-CORROSIVEPOISONING.

WE have received a reprint of a paper published in theIntercolonial Medical Journal of Australasia of July 20th byMr. Judah L. Jona recording some observations on the use ofadrenalin as a means of delaying the absorption of certainrapidly acting poisons, and thus giving longer time for theeffective use of the recognised antidotes. The antidote for

poisoning by cyanide generally recommended is that advo-cated by Professor C. J. Martin and Mr. R. A. O’Brien, whichconsists of 30 cubic centimetres (1 ounce) of a 23 per cent.solution of ferrous sulphate, 30 cubic centimetres of 5 percent. solution of caustic potash, and 2 grammes (30 grains)of magnesia. The first two solutions should be kept in

hermetically sealed phials. It is recommended that the

three substances should be mixed when required and imme-diately taken. The principle of the method is the formationof Prussian blue, which is practically innocuous. In observa-tions on rabbits Professor Martin and Mr. O’Brien found that

using a lethal dose death invariably occurred unless the anti-dote were administered within five minutes of the poison. Mr.Jona rightly points out that in a rapidly acting poison likecyanide of potassium, even in very favourable circum-

stances, more time than this may elapse before the antidotecan be prepared and given. Exner has shown that intra-

peritoneal injections of adrenalin diminish the rate of absorp-tion of strychnine introduced into the stomach, and Mr. Jonatherefore decided to try whether adrenalin given by the monthwould exert a similar effect. He first demonstrated thatadrenalin could exert its vaso-constrictor action after thearteriolar wall has been subjected to the action of cyanide of