630 Foreign and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



is 4 lines in diameter, and bent at a right angle ; the shorter arm, which, 

 at its extremity, has only one line in diameter, is plunged one inch 

 deep in the mixture ; the longer arm, of about three or four feet 

 length, with a cock near its further end, leads into a bottle, with 

 alcohol. The receiver consists of a refrigerator, viz., a wooden tube, 

 filled with water, by which the distilled ether is kept cool, and two 

 copper vessels, the one within the other, so that there is a dis- 

 tance of about two inches between their sides. The neck of the re- 

 tort leads into the intermediate space between the two copper vessels, 

 which is thus filled with the distilled liquid, and from which the liquid 

 may flow off by another tube. The apparatus is used in the fol- 

 lowing manner : When the mixture is boiling, the cock of the glass 

 tube is opened, and the supply of alcohol thus kept up, so that the 

 quantity of liquid in the retort remains always the same ; this is 

 continued until eight times the original quantity of alcohol has been 

 used, which will be the case in about twenty hours, if the original mix- 

 ture consisted of 251bs. of sulphuric acid, and 141bs. of alcohol. The 

 first rectification of the ether thus obtained yields about its third of 

 ether of .725 sp. gr., which may of course be considerably increased 

 by repeated rectifications, besides about twenty to twenty-five per 

 cent, of alcohol are regained, which may be subsequently used again, 

 particularly for the supply of alcohol to the mixture. 



Of 124 Ibs. of alcohol of 0.835 sp. gr., 221bs. were regained ; the 

 quantity of pure ether of 0.720 to 0.725 sp. gr. at 14 R., amounted 

 to 59 Ibs., and of sulphuric acid 25 Ibs. were used. The expenses of 

 fuel, apparatus, attendance, &c. does not raise the price of the ether 

 to more than twice that of its weight of alcohol*. 



21. ON COLUMBINE ; A NEW VEGETABLE PRINCIPLE. 

 (By M. Wittstock.) 



M. Wittstock has succeeded in obtaining from columbo root, a crys- 

 tallised substance, to which he, on account of its similarity to some 

 other vegeto-alkalies, has given the name of columbine (Columbia). 

 The method of preparing it consists simply in distilling the alcoholic 

 extract to about its third ; after a few days yellowish-brown crystals 

 are deposited, which, after having been washed with water, and again 

 dissolved in alcohol with a little animal charcoal, yield colourless 

 prismatic crystals. They may also be obtained by letting the etherial 

 infusion evaporate, and M. Wittstock states that two drachms of the 

 root are sufficient for the experiment, provided the specific gravity of 

 the ether is 0.725. Columbia is extremely bitter, inodorous, and 

 without any effect on vegetable colours ; boiling alcohol of sp. gr. 

 0.835 dissolves from -fa to -3*5- of its weight ; cold alcohol, ether 

 and water, take it up in much less proportion, yet the solutions are 

 intensely bitter. It is also soluble in essential oils and alkaline 



* Extracted from Poggendorffs Ann., Band xx. St. 2, page 461. 



