Henbane-Cultivation in Lincolnshire.-Mr. E. M. Holmes describes the cultivation of henbane at Market Deeping, where the soil seems well suited for it. As at Hitchin and elsewhere the crop is a very uncertain one. The autumn leaves of the first year's growth of the biennial plant are here never stripped off for sale, since doing so is found to lessen the vigor of the growth of the next year. The growth of the seed, which is sown in March, seems in some degree to depend upon the depth at which it is buried and the firmness of the soil. When the earth is in a powdery state and the seed not buried deeply germination takes place more quickly and certainly. Some of the seeds usually develop annual plants. The collection commences about the 6th of June and lasts till the middle of July, the flowering tops and leaves, deprived of the midrib, being alone used for drying. The drying is conducted in a perfect dryingcloset, containing about 140 large sliding trays, the heat being furnished by pipes, through which steam passes, a draught of cold air entering at the base and the heated air escaping at the top. In this way the herb is speedily dried without access of light. The remaining portions of the plant, which consist of the stem and midrib of leaves, are submitted to hydraulic pressure, and the juice used in the preparation of extract, the yield being about 44 lbs. per cwt.

Belladonna.-This, probably on account of the absence or small quantity of lime present in the soil, does not seem to flourish as well as the henbane. It is propagated by seed, which is taken out of the berries and washed and planted in the autumn. It comes up in the following spring, and when of sufficient size is pricked out. The following year it is fit for cutting, the first crop being collected in the beginning of July, and the second about the first week in September. The cultivation can rarely be continued beyond the third year in the same field, as the increased weight of the plant has a tendency to split the root, and water getting in rots it. As much of the root as is in good condition when the land is ploughed up is dried and sold.-Pharm. Jour. Trans., September 17, 1881, pp. 238, 239.

Tobacco-Estimation of Nicotine.-Dr. J. Skalweit, while making a large number of estimations of nicotine in tobacco, has carefully examined the various methods proposed. Schloesing's process yields unreliable results, owing to the difficulty of completely extracting tobacco with ether, and of exactly neutralizing the viscous resinous liquid with acid. Varying the apparatus by employing those recommended by Soxhlet and by Tollens for the extraction of fat, or the apparatus of Schiel, the results were not improved. If distillation in the presence of alkali and water be resorted to, a decomposition of the nicotine seems to be unavoidable. The author, therefore, con

verts the alkaloid into sulphate, and extracts this salt by 98 per cent. alcohol.

The tobacco is dried at 50° C., finely powdered, and the moisture estimated with a weighed sample, 20.25 grams of the powder are mixed with 10 c.c. normal sulphuric acid and 200 c.c. alcohol of 98 per cent. The mixture is boiled for two hours in a flask, connected with a reversed condenser, and when cool poured into a measuring flask of 250 c.c., the boiler being rinsed out with absolute alcohol sufficient for obtaining the measure indicated; 100 c.c. of the clear liquid are placed in a flask, provided with a funnel-tube terminating near the bottom in a fine point, and with a bent tube for carrying off the alcoholic vapors; the greater portion of the alcohol is distilled off, 30 c.c. of potassa solution, specific gravity 1.159, are added, and the distillation is continued until the liquid, dropping from the condenser, shows no reaction on litmus-paper. The distillate is titrated with tenth-normal sulphuric acid, and by dividing the cubic centimeters found with 5, the percentage of nicotine in the tobacco examined is ascertained. The absence of ammonium sulphate is proven by evaporating to dryness and dissolving in 98 per cent. alcohol.-Amer. Jour. Pharm., February, 1882, p. 60; from Archiv d. Phar., July, 1881, pp. 36–41.

Dr. Skalweit has since made comparative experiments with Schloesing's alkali-ether process and the sulphuric acid-alcohol process, with a view of arriving at a satisfactory conclusion on the following points:

1. Is all the nicotine extracted from tobacco by sulphuric acid and alcohol?

2. Is any nicotine retained by the tobacco when treated with potassalye and ether?

His results are affirmative of the first question: the tobacco is completely extracted. As to the second question, however, he is not so certain. In some cases only traces of nicotine are retained by the tobacco, whilst in others the quantity retained was as much as per cent., such being particularly the case in tobaccos containing but little juice, or which had been subjected to after-fermentation in Wenderott's apparatus. The analysis of tobacco is, therefore, more certainly correct, if the extract is made with alcohol and sulphuric acid, than when made with alkali and ether.

The author has slightly modified his process. A current of hydrogen is passed through the apparatus, not alone towards the end, but at the beginning of the distillation. Furthermore, he recommends. that 5 c.c. of warm water be added 2 or 3 times through the funneltube as soon as the extract begins to get dry. The apparatus employed by the author is shown in the accompanying cut. (Fig. 38.) The funnel-tube, it will be observed, is provided with a clamp to shut

off connection of the interior with the outer air when the extract in the flask is nearly dry. The distillate must be carefully tested for

sulphate of ammonium, and, to secure accurate results, should be as concentrated as possible.-Archiv d. Phar., February, 1882, pp. 113-119.

Tobacco-Determination of Nicotine.-R. Kissling criticises the methods for the determination of nicotine hitherto in use, such as Schloesing's, Nessler's, Heury Boutron's, Wittstein's, Dragendorff's, Liecke's, etc., but particularly those of Schloesing and Dragendorff, with which he has made comparative experiments. The objection to the first is that ammonia may be calculated for nicotine, whilst the determination of Dragendorff by titration with iodohydrargyrate of potassium, notwithstanding its apparent simplicity, is impracticable. The author has obtained very good results by the following method: The tobacco is stripped, cut, dried for 1 to 2 hours at 50° to 60°, and reduced to a coarse but uniform powder. 20 grams of this powder are carefully moistened with 10 c.c. of a dilute alcoholic solution of sodium bydrate (6 grams sodium hydrate, 40 c.c. of water, and 60 c.c. alcohol of 95 per cent.); the moist powder is enveloped in filterpaper, introduced into a Tollens extraction-tube, and extracted with 100 c.c. of ether for 2 or 3 hours. The ether is carefully and not quite completely distilled off, the residue mixed with 50 c.c. of dilute aqueous

solution of sodium hydrate (4: 1000) and subjected to distillation in a current of steam, the distillation being carried on as energetically as possible until 400 c.c. of distillate are obtained in 4 portions of 100 c.c. each, which are titrated with sulphuric acid, rosolic acid being used as indicator.

The results of a large number of nicotine determinations show the method to be reliable, and lead the author to the following conclusions:

1. The percentage of nicotine in many (probably all) kinds of tobacco fluctuate between very wide limits, so that the definite percentages of certain sorts of tobacco that are frequently given are entirely without value and can apply only to the sample tested.

2. The percentage of nicotine in a sort of tobacco does not alone vary according to the crop, but there are also very material differences found in the same crop, the same lot, and even in the same package. 3. In the case of fermented tobaccos a certain connection seems to exist between their richness in nicotine and in juice, those containing little juice containing relatively small quantities of nicotine, while the thick, juicy, so-called, fatty kinds, are rich in nicotine.-Archiv d. Pharm., March, 1882, p. 214; from Zeitschr. f. Anal. Chem., xxi, No. 1.

OLEACE.

Fraxinus Americana-Presence of an Alkaloid in the Bark.-Prof. F. B. Power, in connection with Mr. H. M. Edwards, has noticed the presence of an alkaloid in the bark of the White Ash. The body in question is apparently quite a strong base, and is, with a considerable. degree of probability, the principle upon which the therapeutical virtues of the bark depend. Prof. Power will continue his researches,embodying the isolation of the alkaloid, its description, composition, and properties,-and will report on the same at the earliest possible date. Am. Jour. Phar., March, 1882, p. 99.

-

Fraxinus Americana-Characters of the Bark and Proximate Constituents. In connection with the above, the following will be of interest: The White or American Ash grows from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to the western shores of Lake Superior, southward to Florida and Louisiana, and westward to Eastern Nebraska and Kansas. The bark is collected from the trunk and root, the latter being preferred. As seen in commerce it is usually in pieces varying from three to six millimeters in thickness, from twenty-five to seventy-five millimeters in width, and sometimes fifteen centimeters in length. The suberous tissue being generally removed from the old bark, this is externally whitish or grayish-yellow, sometimes reddish or brown-red, frequently with irregular longitudinal ridges and warts from adhering cork; internally it is yellow and smooth. Its transverse fracture is

very fibrous, its odor is slightly aromatic, and its taste bitter and slightly acrid.

Mr. John M. Bradford obtained by distillation with water a minute quantity of volatile oil, and a white substance subsiding in the distillate. The bark was also found to contain a neutral resin, fatty matter, starch, gum, tannin, and a bitter principle, and yielded to different menstrua the percentage of extract below mentioned:

All of these extracts had a bitter taste, and the alcoholic ones were soluble in water. Mr. Howard M. Edwards obtained, besides small quantities of the alkaloid above mentioned, also volatile oil (which was bland and aromatic) and starch, together with sugar; but he found neither tannic nor gallic acid, and attributes the blue-black color produced by ferric chloride to coloring matter and resin. Bradford had, however, obtained a precipitate with gelatin. Mr. Edwards describes the tineture, fluid extract, and extract prepared from the bark, which see under their respective headings under "Pharmacy."

Olives-Cultivation in California.-The olive tree was first planted in California in 1769 by the Spanish missionaries at San Diego, the va riety being probably a wild one, as its fruit is smaller and not so abundant as the French and Italian varieties. Jerome J. B. Argenti, in a thesis to the California College of Pharmacy, states that the olive is now extensively cultivated in the southern and central portions of that State for the manufacture of the oil. From the comparison of meteorological tables the author finds the climate of Colfax to be similar to that of Rome, Sacramento to Naples, Los Angeles to Alexandria, Chico to Jerusalem, and thinks that the olive may be still more extensively grown in California. The tree thrives best in a dry calcareous and sandy soil, and can be propagated by seeds, slips, cuttings, suckers, and from the small swellings or knots called novoli by the Italians. When the seed is used, the pulp of the fruit is removed, the stone is soaked in strong lye to soften it, and is then planted and occasionally watered, the seedling being transplanted when two or three years old. Am. Jour. Phar., April, 1882, p. 178.