morphine by nitric acid, and moreover it may be entirely volata. lized by the heat of the hand. These observations will prevent any difficulty, in a medico-legal point of view, as to the colors produced with morphine, by the nitric, chloric, bromic, or iodic acids.-Ib. No. 396. 15. On the Adulterations of Strychnine. By M. ROBIQUET. (Journ. de Pharmacie.)-The difficulty connected with the preparation of strychnine, and the minute quantity contained in the substances from which it is prepared, have necessarily kept it at a very high price; but the great consumption of the article of late in India, where it is used for the destruction of wild beasts, has induced some druggists to seek for means of diminishing its value, and they have had recourse to their favorite method of increasing the weight by the admixture of various adulterations, and they have carried this species of industry so far as to add 40 or 50 per cent. of foreign matter, especially magnesia, to the strychmne. This fraud is easily detected by the calcination of the suspected sample. Another mode of adulteration consists in mixing the impure strychnine with bone black, which always contains some phosphate of lime, and then acting on the mixture by a diluted acid, which at the same time, dissolves the strychnine and the earthy salt; the solution is then filtered and precipitated by ammonia, by which means the vegetable alkali is mixed with a considerable quantity of the phos. phate. This mixture may be detected in the same manner as that with magnesia. The purchasers of the French vegetable alkalies should attend to this circumstance, for the same frauds are doubtless practised with morphine and its preparations.-16. 16. Colombine--new Crystalline substance, obtained from Colomba Root. By M. WITTSTOCK. (Journal de Pharmacie.)--By treating colomba root with alcohol, sp. gr. 835, and distilling off two thirds, after the residuum has been allowed to stand for some days, a crystalline deposition takes place of beautiful transparent quadrilateral prisms, with rhomboidal bases. A still better way, and one by which the colombine may be obtained quite pure, and in a very short time, is by acting on the root with ether, sp. gr. 0.725, and allowing the tincture thus prepared to evaporate spontaneously; only two drachms of the root are required for the success of this process. Colombine is inodorous and excessively bitter; it does not change the color of test paper; it is freely soluble in boiling alcohol and ether, and remarkably so in warm acetic acid, from which the excess separates on cooling in the crystalline form. Concentrated sulphuric acid causes its solutions to assume a deep red color. From some experiments on rabbits, it appears that co., lombine is capable of acting as an energetic narcotic in small doses.-Ib. 17. Observations on the Solidification of Turpentine by Calcined Magnesia. By J. FAURE, Sen., Bourdeaux. (Journal de Pharmacie.-The essence of turpentine has been successfully employed for many years in different affections, remarkably so as a vermi. fuge, and very recently as a remedy in neuralgic diseases. Having witnessed the difficulty frequently experienced in its administration from the invincible dislike many patients conceive for its acrid and caustic flavor, I have undertaken a series of experiments, for the purpose of fixing or enveloping the turpentine, so as to destroy this unpleasant property. The successful results of these researches are as follows:- 1. Venice turpentine, and that obtained from the terebinthina pinea, was treated with calcined magnesia in different proportions. These mixtures became solid in the space of a few days, varying according to the quantity of magnesia employed. 2. The same turpentines were mixed with one third of their quantity of the essential oil. These mixtures, in some instances, acquired a sufficient degree of consistence, in others became altogether solidified. 3. The solid masses were divided and boiled in alcohol, which dissolved away the turpentine, leaving the magnesia entirely unaltered in its chemical relations. Magnesia is also capable of forming a modified combination with copaiba balsam, the resin of which it separates, acting on the volatile oil as mechanical absorbent alone. On these principles M. Faure proposes formulæ for administering turpentine, its essential oil, and copaiba balsam, in the pillular form. These we do not extract, because the turpentines of various countries differ remarkably in the degree of facility with which they become solidified, and it is only by experiment that the apothecary can become acquainted with the necessary proportions to be employed.--Ib. 18. Mode of detecting the adulterations of some Essential Oils with Essence of Turpentine. (Arch. de Brandes, vol. xxxiii. arch. 3.)-The addition of a little iodine to the essential oil of juniper, produces a great increase of temperature, with the disengagement of yellowish violet vapors. The residue on cooling is fluid, of a yellowish brown color, and possesses the odor of the essential oil. Intense reaction follows the contact of the essential oil of savine with iodine, great heat is extricated, and similar vapors are evolved. The residue is a solid resinous mass of deep brown reddish color, and emphyreumatic smell. The essential oils of tanzy, peppermint, and rue, do not suffer the slightest change. The color of the essential oil of caraway is altered to a beautiful reddish brown. By the addition of a minute quantity of oil of turpentine to those oils which show no changes with iodine, a vehement action immediately ensues. Iodine may thus be used as a re-agent for detecting turpentine, which, it seems, is a frequent adulteration of the oils on which it possesses no action when pure. The experiments above described were performed on oils prepared with the utmost care by the author of the essay, M. Valet.--Ib. 19. Analysis of Sulphureous Waters. (No. dernier de Journal de Pharmacie.)-Numerous examples of sulphureous waters occur, in which the sulphur exists in the double form of free and combined sulphuretted hydrogen. It being important to decide how much is free, and how much in combination, great difficulty has been experienced in devising an analytic process for that purpose. M. Henry (fils) has at length succeeded, and has furnished us with a simple, elegant, and ready mode of proceeding. It consists in agitating a certain quantity of the mineral water with a known weight of finely divided metallic silver, in a closely stoppered bottle. All the free sulphuretted hydrogen is then decomposed, and its sulphur absorbed by the silver; the quantity is then estimated by the increase of weight gained by the latter. The water is then decanted into another bottle of equal size, fitted with an accurately ground stopper, and containing a few crystals of the ammoniaco-nitrate of silver, by which the carbonates, muriates, and hydro-sulphurets, are decomposed and precipitated. This precipitate being collected, and washed in ammonia, the carbonates and muriates (chlorurets) are dissolved, and the sulphuret left behind. Of this, 100 parts, carefully dried, indicate 14 of the sulphuretted hydrogen, or, as M. Henry terms it, hydro-sulphuric acid.--Ib. 20. Application of Mica, or Muscovy Glass, to minute chemical analysis. (Arch. de Brundes.)—It is well known that mica is not brittle, and that it does not burn in the flame of a candle; it is therefore much employed in Russia for lamps and windows, and M. Voget is in the habit of using it for chemical analysis on the small scale. For this purpose, a thin scale of mica is selected, and on this is placed the substance for examination, which may then be held over the spirit-lamp flame. An infinity of experiments may thus be readily performed, and repeated over and over again, without loss of materials, and with incredible economy of time. After the heating, it is sufficient to rub the bit of mica with a moistened rag, and it is as perfect as ever. Detonations, concentrations of metallic salts, the desiccation of minute quantities of moist substances, reduction of metals, are all readily performed in this cheap and simple manner. The transparence of the mica permits every change of color to be clearly seen. Heat is readily communicated to the substance examined, while the imperfect conducting powers of the mica prevent any inconvenience, by holding it in the fingers to the flame. We cannot, however, use it with the blowpipe, for the summit of the flame produces a white stain on the surface like lime. In order to ascertain whether the acids, alkalies, salts, or other substances, possessed any chemical action on mica, even when aided by an increased temperature, M. Voget made the following trials :- A few drops of the sulphuric, nitric, muriatic, acetic, phosphoric, and solution of tartaric acids, were successively concentrated on a slip of mica over the flame of a candle. The phosphoric acid left a faint, permanent mark, the other acids produced no alteration whatever. Caustic potash was fused without any effect. Iodine was volatilized, and left no traces. The nitrate of silver fused, and left, after the expulsion of its acid, a mark of silver, which was easily rubbed off. The acetate and nitrate of lead left a little yellow oxide and metallic lead. The tartrate of antimony and potassa was partly carbonized, and the metal was reduced. Calomel volatilized, and left no stain. Sulphur and phosphorus melted, and burnt away without re-acting on the mica in the slightest degree. These experiments are amply sufficient to call the attention of chemists to an auxiliary in analytic research, which recommends itself by its extreme simplicity, its moderate price, and its practical utility.-Ib. 21. Nicoline, the alkaloid principle of Tobacco. (Abridged from Geiger's Magazin sur Pharmacie.)-MM. Posselt and Reimann have completely succeeded in separating the alkaloid principle which Vanquelin believed to exist in tobacco, but which that distinguished chemist failed to obtain in a separate state. The new substance nicotine, as decribed by the present authors, is liquid at 6° cent. (44° Fahr.) transparent, of a brown red color, of a disagreeable, pungent odor, like that of dried tobacco, and which is increased by an elevation of temperature; taste excessively acrid, and remaining long on the tongue. It communicates a greasy stain to paper, disappearing in twelve hours; specific gravity greater than water; volatile in the open air, leaving a small resinous residuum; boils at 246° cent., (460° Fahr.,) burns when touched by a lighted taper, and at 100° cent. (212° Fahr.) evolves abundant white vapor. Nicotine is soluble in water in all proportions; the solution is decidedly alkaline, and, diluted with 10,000 parts of water, still preserves its acrid taste. It is equally soluble in alcohol, ether, and almond oil. The etherial solution, mixed with muriatic, tartaric, or acetic acid, parts with all its nicotine, and salts, insoluble in ether, are produced. Neutralized by phosphoric acid, the new alkaloid furnishes a colorless sirup, which, when exposed to the sun's rays, affords crystals like cholesterine. The sulphate of nicotine assumes the form of an amorphous mass, slightly acid. Finally, with oxalic acid, nicotine forms a crystalline soluble compound. The nitric acid does not unite with, but nearly effects the decomposition of this alkaloid. The analysis of tobacco by MM. Posselt and Reimann has been crowned by the faculty of medicine at Heidelberg.-Ib. 22. On the employment of Iodine in Cutaneous Diseases. (By THOMAS JEFFREYS, M. D., Liverpool.)--The singularly good effects of iodine in glandular diseases are now generally known and admitted, but I am not aware of its having been used internally in cutaneous diseases, and as I am inclined to think that it will be found an efficacious agent in the cure of some of them when almost every other remedy has failed, I beg to communicate the following remarks on the subject. About seven years ago, the external application of the tincture of iodine was much talked of, and used by myself and others in Liverpool; and, as far as my own opportunities were concerned, with little or no benefit. Having, at that time, a case of a very obstinate nature, in which the disease had existed chiefly upon the back of the hands, for several years, under the form of psoriasis, I thought it probable that, as the external use of iodine had, in some instances, been successful, it might be worth a trial given internally. The result was a complete removal of the impetiginous eruption, although the disease had been distressingly troublesome for six or seven years, more or less. In this instance, almost every remedy in ordinary use had been tried in vain; the Harrogate waters drunk at the well, with the aid of the baths, for five weeks, afforded temporary relief, but nothing more. I began with ten drops twice a day, increasing them daily, until thirty were taken night and morning, for one month after the full dose had been attained. It may, however, be worthy of remark, that the unpleasant and depressing sensation upon the nervous system was such as almost to deter me from its use, an effect which continued, more or less, for many months, and which was almost as bad as the disease itself. This inconvenience, however, I am inclined to think, will be more felt by those who are possessed of nervous irritability, than by the robust. Since the above trial, I have prescribed it in other cases of |