254 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



VEGETABLE COLORING MATTER. 



According to M. Filhol, there exists in nearly all flowers a substance 

 which is scarcely colored when in solution in acid liquids, but which becomes 

 of a beautiful yellow color when acted on by alkalies. This substance has 

 the following properties. It is solid, and of a slightly greenish-yellow color. 

 It is uncrystallizable, soluble in water, alcohol, and ether, and not volatile. 

 When moistened with strong hydrochloric acid, it takes a bright yellow tint, 

 which immediately disappears when the mixture is diluted with water, 

 leaving an almost colorless solution, to which alkalies communicate a yellow 

 color. The matter is found in the green parts of plants as well as the flow- 

 ers, and is, no doubt, the yellow dye found in the leaves of various plants. 

 M. Filhol adopts the name given to it by Hope, and calls it Xanthogene. 

 Mosses, he says, do not contain it, or, at most, only a trace. It is also 

 absent from some flowers, among others the Pelargonium Zonale, and inqui- 

 nans Papaver rheas, Camellias and Salvias. These flowers, under the influ- 

 ence of alkalies, become blue or violet, without the least mixture of green. 

 The coloring matter of these flowers is much less alterable under the 

 influence of air and alkalies than that of most other flowers. 



Chemists who have examined yellow flowers have proved that they owe 

 their color to several immediate principles; among others, xanthine and xan- 

 theine. The author has discovered xanthine in fruits as well as flowers. 

 Chemical Neivs. 



ON THE POISONS FOUND IN ALCOHOLIC SPIRITS. 



The following communication on the above subject, by Dr. A. A. Hayes of 

 Boston, appears in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal: 



Frequently, within the past few years, the public journals have called 

 attention to the existence of poisonous bodies, especially strychnine, in the 

 spirits produced from grains, and no little excitement has grown out of such 

 announcements. 



A somewhat extended series of analytical observations on these spirits, 

 from many sources, has convinced me that no good reason for such a state- 

 ment could be found, and my conclusion has been supported by the testimony 

 of those who are opposed to the manufacture, but who frankly admit that 

 no case has ever fallen under their notice, at the places of manufacture, 

 which would lead to even an inference in regard to the adding of any dele- 

 terious body to the distilled spirits. The addition of non-volatile bodies to 

 the fermented worts, if made, would not contaminate the spirits distilled 

 from them, and it is probable that the supposition, in relation to the use of 

 strychnine for the purpose of increasing the produce of whiskey, arose from 

 the ruse of a foreman, who wished to conceal the particular characteristics 

 of his ferments in daily use. In low places where such spirits are retailed, 

 drugs which produce narcotic effects or temporary frenzy are doubtless 

 resorted to in special cases, while the infusing of pepper or salt is not a very 

 rare occurrence. 



Ca^es of sudden poisoning by the low-priced, common spirits frequently 

 occur, which are not necessarily referable to poisons of foreign origin. 

 Some of the so-called fusel-oils, produced in the fermentation of mixed 

 grains, cither sound or after they have become injured from exposure, act 

 ns powerful poiHonB, and in pome states of dcprepsed action of the humnn 



