in the Year 1835, in reference to the Physiology of Plants. 335 



talis purpurea has also been obtained by Radig *, and recog- 

 nised as a real alkaloid. 



We are yet unacquainted with the origin of the drug known 

 under the name of disco bark ; it belongs according to chemi- 

 cal observations certainly to the bark of some Cinchonacea?. 

 Wincklert prepared the Cusconin which had been dis- 

 covered in it by Pelletier and Leverkohn. It possesses great 

 similarity to the known cinchonic bases, melts like quinia, is 

 not so easily sublimed, and differs in its elementary composi- 

 tion. Thus cinchonia, quinia, and cusconia appear to be ox- 

 ides of a radical (C 20 H 24 N 2 ) which contain 1, 2 or 3 atoms 

 of oxygen. 



O. Henry J examined the leaves and fruit capsules of Cin- 

 chona micrantha, which contained no cinchona-alkaloid and no 

 cinchonate of lime ; he found these substances, on the contrary, 

 in the sap which had flowed from the stem, and in the root of 

 this tree. We have further received notices from Winckler§ 

 on brucia and solania, from Vasmer and Geiseler || on ve- 

 ratria and strychnia, from Clement Leef on sanguinaria, 

 and from Peretti** on pitoyn. 



We must take for granted that our readers are acquainted 

 with the earlier experiments on the chemical history of opium, 

 or the dried milk sap of the unripe heads of poppies, so that 

 we need make but a general mention of the two important 

 papers of Pelletierff and Couerbe Jf. This infinite mine of 

 interesting substances lately presented Pelletier with two, one 

 of which showed the same elementary composition as morphia, 

 and was named by Pelletier, Paramorphia ; to the other he 

 gave the name of Pseudo-morphia. We can only here speak 

 of the first, since Pelletier did not always obtain the second 

 under exactly the same circumstances. Notwithstanding the 

 similar composition of morphia and paramorphia, the latter 

 differs from the first by its solubility in sulphuric aether, by 

 the property of not being coloured blue by salts of iron, and by 

 its incapability of forming crystalline salts with acids; it pos- 

 sesses, however, the nature of an alkaloid, and differs in that 

 respect, as well as by its styptic and metallic taste, and crystal- 

 line form from narcotina. It belongs to the most violent poisons, 

 as one grain produced violent rigid spasms and death in a dog. 



* Ehrmann, Pharm. Novellen, 1834, part 2. 



f Buchn. Repert.y vol. li. p. 171. 



j Journ. de Pharm , October 1835. 



§ Buchn. Repert. t li. || Archivfiir die Pharmacxe> vol. ii. part 1. 



f The American Journ. of Pharm., 1835. April. 



•■• Gazetta eclettica di Farmacia, 1835. No. 8. 



•ft Geiger and Liebig's Ann. der Pharm., vol. xvi. part I. 



\% Journ. de Chim. Med. December 1835. 



