CHEMISTRY. 419 



cultly soluble in ookl water and (together with its salts) has an iuteusely 

 bitter taste. Its structure is as follows : 



CfiHs — SO2/ 2 



\n02 4 



Para-amidobeuzoic sulphinide, on the other hand, has au intensely sweet 

 taste. Its solution, even when very dilute, shows a dark-blue fluor- 

 escence. The author describes its salts with potassium, barium, and 

 silver. (Am. Chem. J., viii, 107.) 



On ^Yrightine, by H. Warnecke. — This alkaloid, first isolated by Sten- 

 house in 1864, from the seeds of Wrightia antidysenterica, an apocyna- 

 ceous tree from India. It is the first known solid base occurring in 

 nature which is free from oxygen. If a trace of this base, dissolved in 

 chloroform, is evaporated to dryness in a porcelain capsule, the residue 

 covered with 2 to 3 c. c. of water and strong sulphuric acid is added in a 

 slender stream, a golden-yellow^ color spreads from tlie bottom of the 

 capsule through the whole liquid, and turns to a green on standing fur 

 twelve hours. If 1 milligram of the alkaloid is rubbed up iu a watch- 

 glass with five drops of strong sulphuric acid and let stand exposed to 

 the air for two hours, the liquid which was at first colorless, turns yellow- 

 ish green and finally a pale violet. If the above mixture is at once ex- 

 posed in the neck of a flask to the steam of boiling water the mass turns 

 dark green, and passes into deep blue on contact with a little water. 

 (Ber. d. chem. Ges., xix.) 



Chemical Aspects of Future Food Supply. — The chemical section of 

 the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at the meet- 

 ing in Buffalo, August, 1886, was numerously attended. The president 

 of the section, Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, addressed the members on "The 

 Economical Aspects of Agricultural Chemistry." His concluding sen- 

 tences on the Future Food Supply are as follows: "Since, with a proper 

 economy, the natural supplies of potash and phosphoric acid, as we 

 have seen, may be made to do duty over and over again, and last in- 

 definitely, the economist who looks to the welfare of the future need 

 have no fear of the failure of these resources of the growing plant. In- 

 deed, it may be said that the available quantities of them may be in- 

 creased by a wise practice of agriculture, based on the teacbings 

 of agricultural chemistry. But with the increase of population comes 

 an increased demand for food, and therefore the stores of available 

 nitrogen must be enlarged to supply the demands of the increased 

 agricultural product. It is certain, that with the new analytical 

 methods, and the new (piestions raised by the investigations of which 

 I have spoken, UKiny seri».'o of cxperjineurs will be undertaken, the 



