118 FINE CHEMICALS AND PHARMACEUTICS. [iV, 



Peruvian bark, a resinous mass, quinoidin, remains, which has 

 been supposed to be a mixture of resin, &c. with quinin and 

 cinchonin, or a modification of these alkaloids. 



Roder (Mittheilungen des Schweizer Apothekervereins, 

 i. 31) gives a method by which he obtained upwards of 40 

 per cent, of quinin, and 10 per cent, of cinchonin, from dif- 

 ferent samples of quinoidin. Of the residue, about 30 per 

 cent, was resin. The process is as follows. A solution of a 

 J pt. protochloride of tin, in 2 pts. water, is added to 4 pts. 

 alcohol (.865) holding 1 pt. quinoidin : resin precipitates. 

 Ammonia is poured into the decanted supernatant liquor, and 

 the resulting precipitate drained, washed, dried, and exhausted 

 with alcohol. The treatment is repeated with half the quan- 

 tity of tin-salt first employed, and the clear liquids again 

 precipitated by ammonia. The precipitates, washed, dried, 

 and displaced as before, yield a tincture which, when neu- 

 tralized with dilute sulphuric acid and evaporated, drops 

 crystals of sulphate of quinin. The cinchonin remains in the 

 filtrates from the tin and quinin precipitates. 



Winckler (Journ. flir Pract. Pharm. xv. 281) detects the 

 presence of crystallized sulphates of quinin and cinchonin in 

 quinoidin, by the use of hyposulphite of soda, which imme- 

 diately precipitates hyposulphite of quinin, in a white crys- 

 talline form, and hyposulphate of cinchonin as four-sided 

 needles, from their solution in hydrochloric acid. Both salts 

 disengage sulphuretted hydrogen and sulphurous acid upon 

 treatment with concentrated sulphuric acid. Dilute sulphuric 

 acid converts them into sulphates, with evolution of sulphurous 

 acid and elimination of sulphur. The amorphous alkaloids, 

 or quinoidin, when saturated with muriatic acid, do not yield 

 these precipitates. (Ch. Gaz. vi. 122.) 



The Bark of Adansonia Digitata. — Dr. Duchassaing, a 

 physician at Guadaloupe, employs this bark with great success 

 in intermittent fevers. (Comptes Rendus, xxvi. and Ch. Gaz. 

 vi.) It is without action upon the nervous system and improves 

 the digestive powers. It is used in decoction made by boiling 

 1 oz. of bark in a litre of water, and evaporating to one-third ; 



