402 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



wheaten flour and gluten would prove excellent antidotes to the 

 poison. It was found by experiment, that wheaten flour and 

 gluten, reduced corrosive sublimate to the state of calomel ; 

 and also that considerable quantities, of a mixture of flour or 

 gluten with corrosive sublimate, might be eaten by animals 

 without producing injury ; thus fourteen grains of sublimate 

 have been given in less than twelve hours to rabbits and poultry 

 without injury, whereas a single grain was sufficient to pro- 

 duce death when administered alone. A grain of the subli- 

 mate required from twenty to twenty-five grains of fresh gluten 

 to become innocuous ; when dry gluten was used half this quan- 

 tity was sufficient, but when wheaten flour was taken, from 

 fifteen to eighteen danari, ('SOO or 600 gr.,) were required. Dr. 

 Taddei recommends that dried gluten be kept in the apothe- 

 caries' shops, and that it be administered when required, mixed 

 with a little water. — Giornale di Fisica, 2. p. 37.5. 



6. Netv Vegetable Alkalies — Piperine. — M. Oersted an- 

 nounces the addition of two new vegetable alkalies to those 

 already known. One of these, to be called Piperine, is ob- 

 tained from pepper, by digesting it in alcohol ; muriatic acid 

 is to be added to the alcohol, and then water ; the resin is pre- 

 cipitated, and the muriate of piperine remains in solution. The 

 solution is to be evaporated for some time, and then decom- 

 posed by pure potash, which precipitates the new alkali. 



Piperine is nearly insoluble in cold water, and only very 

 slightly in boiling water. It dissolves in alcohol, and the so- 

 lution has a greenish yellow colour, which by the addition of 

 nitric acid is rendered a perfect green. Piperine is very acrid. 

 With sulphuric and acetic acids it forms salts nearly insoluble 

 in water. The muriate is moderately soluble. The capacity 

 of saturation appears to be very small. 



M. Forchhammer has found a new alkali in the fruit of the 

 capsicum annuum. It is extremely acrid. It is more soluble 

 in water, and has a greater capacity of saturation than the 

 other vegetable alkalies. It forms a triple salt with the pro- 

 toxide of lead and muriatic acid, which is as acrid as the alkali 

 itself. — Journal de Physique, 1820, p. 173. 



