Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 153 



'.-i 



domcstica) to escape from an insulated situation, I felt anxious to as- 

 certain so curious a fact. I therefore proceeded by experiment to 

 confirm or refute it. 



Having procured a common basin, I placed a piece of clay at the 

 bottom, into which I fixed a small stick, with a round card at about 

 an inch from the top ; then filling it with water up to the rim, I pro- 

 cured a spider; and placing him on the card, left him 

 no chance of escape save swimming, which on my 

 watching for some hours he declined, although ex- 

 hibiting extreme activity in running up and down 

 the mast, and frequently pressing his feet on the 

 surface of the water. For three days his captivity 

 endured, but on the morning of the fourth my little 

 prisoner had escaped, by means of a web extended 

 from the card to the outer edge of the basin. — The annexed sketch will 

 exhibit his prison and means of escape. James F. Pikenix. 



Liverpool, Dec. 6, 1831. 



SUBSTANCES CONTAINED IN OPIUM. 



M. Pelletier in an elaborate memoir on opium printed in the An- 

 nates de Chimie, and which we propose to abridge in a future Num- 

 ber, mentions the following principles as contained in opium; viz. 

 narcotine, morphia, meconic acid, meconine, narceine, caoutchouc, 

 gum, bassorine, lignin, resin, brown acid and extractive matter, fixed 

 oil, and a volatile but non-oleaginous principle, which rises in distil- 

 lation with water. 



Added to these substances M. Bebert announces (Journal de 

 Pharmacie, April 1832,) another peculiar principle: it is bitter, cry- 

 stallizable, forms salts with acids, especially with acetic acid, with 

 which it gives crystals in the form of very white scales, and with 

 sulphuric acid white silky crystals ; — no name is given to this sub- 

 stance by its discoverer. 



M. Robiquet, it also appears, has separated a new alkali from opium, 

 which he calls paverin. Only a few details of its properties are as 

 yet given (Journ. de Pharm. Nov. 1832.) It differs very remarkably 

 from other vegeto-alkalies in being soluble in water. It saturates 

 acids, is insoluble in potash, and contains much azote ; it is very 

 poisonous, and acts very particularly on the spinal marrow. 



ANALYSIS OF CAMPHOR AND SOME VOLATILE OILS. 



M. Dumas observes, that essential oils may be divided into — first, 

 those which are entirely composed of carbon and hydrogen, such as 

 the oil of lemon, turpentine, and naphtha j secondly, oxygenated oils, 

 as camphor, oil of aniseed, and many others ; thirdly, the essential oils 

 which admit of a new element in their composition, as the oil of mustard, 

 which contains sulphur, and that of almonds, which contains azote. 



Some fine isolated crystals of camphor taken from the centre of a 

 sublimed cake of that substance, yielded such proportions of carbonic 



Third Series, Vol. 2. No. 8. Feb. 1833. X 



