I would gladly enlarge somewhat on my stay in China did time permit, for the country, or at any rate its people, afford rich material for study in whatever aspect they are approached. The language is of course the great obstacle to obtaining information. I had the pleasure of visiting some of the drug shops of the native town in Shanghai in company with Mr. Fryer, an accomplished Chinese scholar,—the translator of many European scientific works into their difficult language. Here we found an assortment of wonderful remedies, of which Tertiary fossils were not the least important. The bones of extinct species of Rhinoceros and Elephas and the fossil teeth of several carnivorous animals, under the names of "dragon's bones" and "dragon's teeth," are amongst the most highly prized articles of Chinese materia medica. Dragon's teeth

are said in their old books to cure heart-ache and stomach-ache, to drive away ghosts, to cure colds and dysentery, fainting in children. and nocturnal alarms, and to increase the general health. Who would not like to possess a dragon's tooth? We are told that they are only genuine when they adhere to the tongue.

I would willingly also linger over Japan, but must perforce confine my remarks to one or two subjects. At Kobé the air was redolent of the familiar scent of camphor from a pile of tubs of the crude drug waiting on the quay for shipment. At Osaka I was hospitably entertained by an old member of the Conference, Mr. W. Gowland, who for several years has held a high position in the Imperial Mint, and is in fact responsible for the coinage of the country, which now holds an excellent character in the East.

At Tokio, my friend, Dr. R. W. Atkinson, the Professor of Chemistry in the University, drew my attention to a pretty little earthenware distilling apparatus, in use amongst the Japanese, which I have much pleasure in introducing to your notice.

The accompanying sketches will, I think, be readily understood. It consists of four pieces: a boiler, a, on to which fits a short cylinder, with a perforated bottom, b, and over this a condenser, c, with a cover, d. The cover being removed, a stream of cold water can be kept running into the condenser by means of a bamboo, and the overflow carried off by the spout at its base. Round the base of the inner side of the middle cylinder runs a ledge which forms a channel opening into an exit spout. The materials for distillation are put into the boiler, and the whole is placed on the ordinary hibatchi, or domestic fire-box. The vapour passes through the perforated bottom of the cylinder, collects in drops on the dome-shaped inner surface of the condenser, runs

down into the channel before described, and is collected at its exit

from the spout. This little contrivance is known by the Japanese

under the name of lambik or rambiki, which is doubtless some corruption, through the Dutch, of the word alembic. In the country districts peppermint is largely used as a corrective for water rendered muddy and otherwise unsuitable for drinking by rains, as well as for other domestic purposes, and this apparatus is one

may

afford

of the means employed for its distillation. Whether it any hints of which advantage may be taken in our laboratories, I must leave you to determine.

The PRESIDENT said the Conference was much indebted to Mr. Brady for the extremely interesting account he had given of his journey. The subject of cinchona cultivation itself was one which was almost unknown to the world in general, and it was only those

who, like themselves, had connection with it, had any conception of its magnitude.

Mr. SCHACHT drew attention to a fine collection of photographs which Mr. Brady had brought with him and which were open to inspection.

Mr. WHITE thought it would not have been inappropriate if Mr. Brady had pointed out what a lucrative culture the cinchona was.

It was once said that the most lucrative culture in the world was early spring radishes in the neighbourhood of London, as they gave a larger return per acre than any other product, but after what they had heard about cinchona, he was led to believe that perhaps it produced a larger amount of profit when cultivated than any other known article. He had been told that as much as £1000 per acre had been acquired from the cultivation of this tree in Ceylon, and if this fact were pointed out, it would be an incentive

to increase the culture, which of course would tend to lower the price and confer great benefits on mankind.

Mr. BRADY, in reply to Mr. White's observations, said that it was altogether too soon to attempt to determine the eventual profits to be derived from cinchona culture. At the present time, of course, those who had bark to sell were in an enviable position: but it was a question of supply and demand, and if the state of things foreshadowed in Mr. Howard's paper should ever come about, the bark from our eastern plantations could not possibly continue to realize its present value.

Mr. GREENISH said he was glad to hear Mr. Brady's remarks with respect to the coffee plantations being injured by the exhaustion of the soil. Six years ago he was in Portugal during the time of the vintage, when he was asked by a Portuguese gentleman if he could in any way account for the fungoid disease on the fruit and the phylloxera on the root. Just in front of the house was a vineyard which was very productive, and at that time they were gathering the crop. He made a calculation, and pointed out that every year they were taking away so many tons of grapes from the vineyard, and not even the leaves that fell from the trees were allowed to remain on the ground. It was, therefore, simply a question of time when they would cease to have any grapes at all.

Mr. WOOTTON said no doubt Mr. Brady when in Japan heard of the complaints against the Japanese Government with reference to drugs from England, many of the English wholesale druggists having complained very bitterly. He had heard of it from a gentleman who had lived for many years in Yokohama, who said the matter was now before the British Foreign Office. The complaint was that the Government analysts condemned English exports of drugs to a very great extent, but not until they had allowed the duty to be paid for them. It sometimes happened that, after they were condemned and not allowed to be sold, certain persons would go to the owner of the property and offer him a small price, which he was glad to take rather than ship them back to England. Of course only one side of the question was heard here, and he had no means of knowing what the views of the Japanese Government were. They seem to have acted pretty fairly to a great extent, for although they appointed native analysts in each of the ports to which English goods were sent, they ap pointed an European superintendent. He believed in Yokohama this superintendent was a Dutchman, because Dutch imports were the smallest, and it was thought that his judgment would be less

biased than an Englishman's or a Frenchman's. He did not know whether Mr. Brady could give any opinion on the matter.

Mr. BRADY, in reply to Mr. Wootton's question as to the griev ances complained of in connection with the importation of drugs into Japan, said the matter had scarcely begun to attract public attention when he was at Yokohama, and he had heard little about it. That the Japanese had a faculty for devising both import and export duties on every conceivable thing on which it was possible to raise money was a fact well and widely recognised. The appointment of a Dutchman to the superintendence of this department of the revenue should not, he thought, be attributed to any preference for the representative of a country doing only a small trade, but rather to the old standing commercial relations of the Japanese with Holland, dating back to a period long anterior to their commerce with this country.

Mr. UMNEY said when he heard Mr. Brady speak of a Newcastle engineer at the cocoa nut oil factory, he could not help wishing that some enterprising cinnamon grower had sent here for a manufacturing pharmacist to conduct the distillation of his cinnamon oil. He could say safely there was no product which came into the London market which pharmacists were bound to use (for 95 per cent. of the cinnamon oil was imported) which was so unsatisfactory, and required so much care in selection. Cinnamon leaf was distilled, and of course its distillate came into the market as a distinct product, but he believed sometimes cinnamon leaves found their way into the still, and that very much deteriorated the quality of the oil. At any rate, that some inferior qualities of bark found their way into the still with the superior qualities there could be no question. Again, referring to the primitive way in which the distillation was carried on, they could now well understand how different cinnamon oils varied so much. Chemists knew that cinnamon oil was made up of two products, the one a light and the other a heavy oil. The bulk of it was a heavy oil, and he should like to ask Mr. Brady whether he had observed if there was a light and heavy essential oil separator at the stills. He should say that to distil cinnamon 40 or 50 pounds at a time was about the worst way of going to work economically that could possibly be devised, unless the water was returned again and again to the still for redistillation with fresh portions of cinnamon.

A vote of thanks was then passed to Mr. Brady.