colorimetrically comparison with a one-tenth per cent. solution of ester and ferric chloride in the usual manner. The results of these experiments are recorded in the following table:

Having ascertained what appeared to be the most favorable conditions for distillation, 45.14 Ko. of rather thick pieces of sweet birch bark were coarsely ground and distilled until the aqueous distillate was almost tasteless. The oil which separated weighed 138.35 grams, yield 0.306 p. c. From the aqueous distillate an additional 34.638 grams of oil or 0.076 p. c. were obtained by cohobating twice. The total yield, therefore, was 172.99 grams corresponding to 0.383 p. c. which falls short by about 0.383 p. c. of the calculated yield.

The constants of the two oils were determined separately. Both were soluble in four parts of 70 p. c. alcohol, in one part of 80 p. c. alcohol and miscible in all proportions with 90 p. c. alcohol. The other data are tabulated below.

The oils were then mixed and rectified, yielding 83.8 p. c. of rectified oil, the solubility of which was the same as that of the unrectified oil.

The wintergreen leaves used in these experiments were collected last summer under the supervision of Rev. J. Stucki by Winnebago Indians near Black River Falls, where formerly wintergreen oil was distilled on a small commercial scale. The drug was in good condition and contained no foreign matter.

25.4 Ko. of leaves after proper maceration yielded 73.41 grams or 0.2889 p. c. of oil directly, and an additional 87.414 grams or 0.383 p. c. of oil upon cohobation. The total yield, therefore, was 160.82 grams or 0.633 p. c., which again falls short by about 55 p. c. of the calculated yield.

Both oils were miscible with 90 p. c. alcohol in all proportions. The former, however, required two parts of 80 p. c. and seven parts of 70 p. c. alcohol, the latter one and two-third parts of 80 p. c. and six parts of 70 p. c. alcohol for solution. The other data are tabulated below.

Both gaultheria oils were then mixed and rectified, yielding 129.36 grams.

Historical Fragments.

By Edward Kremers.

11. Pharmaceutical Notes from the Journal of François André Michaux.

In the preceeding fragment, the writer called attention to a few recorded observations concerning medicinal plants and their uses by the elder Michaux. In the present account similar data by François André Michaux, the son of the former, are to be brought to the attention of the pharmaceutical public. These data are taken from "Travels to the west of the Alleghany Mountains" etc. recently reprinted, the references in the text referring to the pages of the reprint.

*

F. A. Michaux as a lad of fifteen had accompanied his father on his first trip to America in 1785. They remained in the vicinity of New York for a year and a half when, in the spring of 1787 they removed to Charleston. Ten miles from this city the elder Michaux bought a plantation and entered into the search for new plants and their cultivation upon his estate. In these occupations the son assisted his father, but later returned to France to study medicine.

After his father's death in 1802, François was commissioned by the French government to proceed "to the United States to study forests and agriculture." "The journal of his travel was not originally intended for print; but the interest aroused in the Western region of the United States by the sale of Louisiana, induced its publication. The first French edition appeared in 1804.... (p. 14). Another edition appeared in 1808. The first was soon Englished by B. Lambert, and two editions with different publishers issued from London presses in 1805..... The same year, a German translation issued from the Weimar press."

"The few years that intervened between the records of the elder and younger Michaux show the rapidity with which the West was

* Thwaites: Early western travels, vol. 3, pp. 105-306.

changing.

The younger traveller describes the inhabitants with

more particularity than his father....."

So much for the general characterization of the younger Michaux. As in the previous fragment his observations on medicinal plants will be quoted in full.

François André Michaux embarked at Bordeaux September 24, 1801, for Charleston where he found his father's botanical garden in total neglect. In the spring of 1802 he went to New York and then to Philadelphia, which he left June 27th of the same year for Pittsburg and the "Western Country," viz. Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio. On the route to Pittsburg he crossed the river Juniata where he observed the magnolia, concerning which he records the following statements:

"The Magnolia acuminata is very common in the environs; it is known in the country by the name of the cucumber tree. The inhabitants of the remote parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia and even the western countries, pick the cones when green to infuse in whiskey, which gives it a pleasant bitter. This bitter is very much esteemed in the country as a preventive against intermittent fevers; but I have my doubts whether it would be so generally used if it had the same qualities when mixed with water" (p. 143).

About four miles from Bedford he stopped for breakfeast at a public house July 1. Here he found a person who had been bitten by a rattle snake the day previous. "I learned," he states, "from some persons in the house that immediately after the bite, the juice of certain plants had been applied to the wound, waiting for the doctor's arrival, who lived fifteen or twenty miles off. . . . The plants made use of against the bite are very numerous, and almost all succulent." However, he does not mention the name of a single one. Neither do the plants appear to have been very effective judging from the condition in which the patient is described to have been (p. 146).

In Ligonier Valley he visited a number of people sick with the measles which, he states, were very prevalent in this country. He "found them all drinking whiskey, to excite perspiration. I advised them a decoction of the leaves of the viscous elm, with the addition of a spoonful of vinegar to the pint, and an ounce of sugar of maple. In consequence of the country being poor, and the population not very numerous, there are but few medical men there; and in

cases of necessity they have to go twenty or thirty miles to fetch them" (p. 152).

Of European plants which grew abundantly he mentions stramonium and mullein, the latter only east of the Alleghanies. To the former he devotes an entire paragraph.

"At Alexandria, and the other little towns in the western country, which are situated upon a very rich soil, the space between every house is almost entirely covered with stramonium. This dangerous and disagreeable plant has propagated surprisingly in every part where the earth has been uncovered and cultivated within twelve or fifteen years; and let the inhabitants do what they will, it spreads still wider every year. It is generally supposed to have made its appearance at James-Town in Virginia, whence it derived the name of James-weed. Travellers use it to heal the wounds made on horses' backs occasioned by the rubbing of the saddle" (p. 187).

One other medicinal plant should be mentioned, namely ginseng, the commercial importance of which had already been recognized by his father. It will be remembered that the older Michaux called the attention of the mountaineers of the Carolinas to the value of this root.

The younger Michaux first mentions it in his account of the commercial enterprise of Pittsburg, from which we quote the following paragraph. "The conveyance of merchandise from Philadelphia to Pittsburg is made in large covered waggons, drawn by four horses two a-breast. The price of carrying goods varies according to the season; but in general it does not exceed six piastres the quintal. They reckon it to be three hundred miles from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and the carriers generally make it a journey of from twenty to twenty-four days. The price of conveyance would not be so high as it really is, were it not that the waggons frequently return empty; notwithstanding they sometimes bring back on their return to Philadelphia or Baltimore, fur skins that come from Illinois or Ginseng which is very common in that part of Pensylvania." (p. 158.) This shows that ginseng was of considerable value otherwise it could not have stood the high freight rates.*

* In this connection, attention may be called to the advertisements for ginseng which the writer has found in the Pittsburg Gazette: