168 Proceedings of the 



to medicine, they were mfinitely less important than those con- 

 nected with the different kinds of Peruvian bark. Of this drug 

 three varieties are directed to be kept for medical use, in the Lon- 

 don Pharmacopa'ia. The cinchona lancifolia furnishes 2?«^e 6«rA:; 

 the cinchona oblonglfolia, red bark ; and the cinchona cordifolia, 

 yellow bark. From the first of these Messrs. Pelletier and Caven- 

 tou obtained the peculiar vegetable-alkaline, or salifiable base, 

 called cinchonia ; it is crystallizable, intensely bitter, and forms 

 distinct salts with the acids : from the last they also procured a 

 distinct base, called quinia ; it is not crystallizable, but forms 

 several salts that are so, and which, like the former, are charac- 

 terized by intense bitterness. The red bark contains both cin- 

 chonia and quinia. Specimens of these substances, and of their 

 principal salts, were exhibited, and the modes of obtaining them 

 described and illustrated. The compound which has gained most 

 celebrity, and which, indeed, is a truly valuable addition to the 

 Materia Medica, is the sulphate of quinia. Mr. Brande said, that 

 he thought cinchonia and its salts had scarcely been fairly tried. 

 The adulterations of sulphate of quinia, and the means of de- 

 tecting them, were next adverted to, and the discourse concluded 

 with some general remarks upon the chemical analogies existing 

 among these vegetable proximate principles ; among these were 

 particularly noticed their very high equivalent numbers, and feeble 

 saturating powers, — their general medical activity, — the insolubility 

 of their compounds with gallic acid, — their difficult solubility in 

 water, and comparative solubility in alcohol, and their existence in 

 the vegetables whence they are obtained, in combination with 

 peculiar acids which have been but little examined. 



Some specimens of the lately-discovered electro-negative element, 

 called bromine^ were laid upon the library table : also experimental 

 illustrations of rotation; there were also curious specimens of arti- 

 ficial flowers, manufactured by the Brazilians from the scales of fishes ; 

 and a variety of novelties in French and other foreign literature. 



February 1st. 



Mr. Faraday gave a series of illustrations of the new phenomena 

 produced by a current of air, vapour, or any other fluid, which have 

 recently been observed by M. Clement, and experimented upon by 

 him and other French philosophers. 



We refer our readers to the abstracts from the papers of MM. Cle- 

 ment and Hachette, in vol. i., p. 473, and vol. ii., p. 193, for some 

 account of these phenomena, in which also the forms of apparatus \veU 



