72 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



weight, shaking well for five minutes, 

 then adding sufficient ammonia water and 

 shaking well for half an hour. Then 

 some water is added to clog the drug powder 

 together and an aliquot part is poured off and at 

 once treated with dilute acid in a separatory 

 funnel. The acid solution is made alkaline 

 with ammonia and extracted with ether chloro- 

 form, the chloroform usually in excess to facili- 

 tate separation. The extracting fluid is let into 

 a small flask and the ether-chloroform distilled 

 off on a water-bath. By adding a little ether 

 and alcohol, the last portions of chloroform 

 can be successfully removed on the water-bath. 

 The residue, consisting of the alkaloids usually 

 in a good state of purity, is then titrated with 

 acid and alkali, using brazil wood or litmus as 

 an indicator. The following results were ob- 

 tained: 



Cortex of "fancy" root yielded 1.68 per cent. 

 of alkaloids by titration. 



Cortex of "wiry" root yielded 3.15 per cent, 

 of alkaloids by titration. 



Woody portion of "fancy" root yielded 0.17 

 per cent, of alkaloids by titration. 



Woody portion of "wiry" root )ielded 0.50 

 per cent, of alkaloids by titration. 



These roots were picked from the same sam- 

 ple of ipecac root, which contained both varieties 

 in about equal quantity. 



This verifies the results obtained last year and 

 justifies the conclusion that the so-called "wiry' > 

 root, i. e., the upper part of the root which free 

 quently is in part a stem, contains more alkaloid 

 than the lower or annulated part. The explana- 

 tion of this fact is easily given. The cork cells 

 and cortical parenchyma adjacent to them ar- 

 the seat of the alkaloids. Apiece of "fancy'' 

 root weighs more than a piece of "wiry" root of 

 the same size, because of the excess of starch in 

 the former. It hence takes three pieces of the 

 same length of "wiry" root to make up the same 

 weight as two pieces of "fancy" root. The per- 

 centage of outer bark, i. t.. cork cells and ad- 

 joining cortical parenchyma is in consequence 

 greater in case of the "wiry" than in case of the 

 'fancy" root, which is only another way of say- 

 ing that the percentage of alkaloids is greater in 

 the former than in the latter. This also explains 

 why so much more alkaloid was found in the 

 comparative cortex assays in the "wiry" than 111 

 the "fancy" root ; for given the same weight of 

 both, there was more wood removed when the 

 cortex was scraped from the woody cylinder in 

 case of the "wiry" than in case of the "fancy" 

 root, and it required all the more of the "wiry" 

 cortex to make up this loss, since the percent- 

 age of wood in the " wiry " is about three times 

 that in the "fancy" root. This is equivalent to 

 an addition af alkaloid, since the cortex is the 

 seat of the latter, -A. Ph. A. Proc, 1894. 



Preparation of Culture Media.—]. L.Smith 

 {Brit. Med. Jour., 1894, 11 77) points out the 

 difficulty bacteriologists have to contend within 

 the fact that the composition of many of the 

 media used for cultivations of pathogenic mi- 

 crobes differs so widely from that of the blood 

 and other fluids found in the animal tissues. He 

 describes a method by which medica can be 

 prepared directly from these fluids by a process 

 which reduces the difficulties of manipulation to 

 a minimum. 



Break up the white of a hen's egg with an 

 egg-heater till it loses its consistency ; add 40 

 per cent, of water and mix well ; pass the mix- 

 ture through muslin to remove any shreds of in- 

 soluble material; add o. 1 per cent, of caustic 

 soda, and solidify in the autoclave. With a lit- 

 tle care in clearing it a jelly of egg-white can be 

 obtained which closely resembles gelatin in con- 

 sistency. Substances like glucose can be added 

 if desired. 



A large variety of bacteria have been found to 

 grow on this medium with great readiness. 



Aliphatic Acids of Lanolin.— By J . de Sauc- 

 tis ( Gazzetla 24, I, 14-28). Lanolin was treated 

 with hot sodium ethoxide solution, and the so- 

 dium salts- deposited were then extracted with 

 ether to remove basic compounds. The acids 

 not volatile in a current of steam were found to 

 be cerotic, palmitic, normal caproic and oleic 

 acids. Those volatile in a current of steam were 

 stearic, isovaleric, and normal butyric acids. 

 The acids were separated by means of their lead 

 salts and anylized quantitatively. 



Persea gratissima Gaert.—The distillation of 

 2 kilos of the leaves from Genoa yielded 0.5 per 

 cent, of a pale greenish oil, showing the follow- 

 ing constants : Sp. gr o 9607 , optical rotation 

 + i° 5o / dd at i8.2° = i.5i64. In odor and taste 

 the oil almost exactly resembles estragon oil. It 

 does not contain anethol. Its high Sp. gr. and 

 its refractive index, taken in conjunction with 

 its odor and taste indicated a fairly pure methyl- 

 chavicol, a body which has been shown to be 

 present in oils of estragon and anise bark. An 

 attempt to convert a portion of the oil into ane- 

 thol by means of caustic potash unfortunately 

 miscarried through the bursting of the Vessel 

 employed in the operation. The small quantity 

 of oil remaining was iodized with permanganate 

 of potassium and an acid obtained melting at 183 

 and showing all of the properties of anisic acid. 

 It is therefore probable that the principal con- 

 stituent of the oil of the leaves of Persea gratis- 

 sima GJirt is methvlchavicoe,&n isomer of anethol 

 of a distince anise like odor Prof. Fliickiger 

 called the attention of Messrs. Schimmel & Co. 

 to the anise like odor of the leaves of this plant. 

 —Schimmel 's Report, Oct. 1894, 69. 



