88 



CHEMISTRY. 



alcohol groups, not in the phenol hydroxyl of 

 the morphine, but in the hydrocarbon radical 

 of the morphine itself. 



M. A. Muntz has obtained, by treating the 

 meal of lucerne with water containing a little 

 neutral acetate of lead, the gum-galactine, a 

 distinct substance which is characterized by its 

 high dextro-gyrate rotatory power, and the 

 property of reducing, under the influence of 

 diluted acids, the sugar of milk. It occurs 

 abundantly in vegetable products, and is found 

 in large quantities in leguminous seeds, partic- 

 ularly in those which do not contain amidon. 

 It is digested by animals, but has not been sac- 

 charified experimentally. M. Muntz suggests 

 that the remarkable property of this body of 

 giving rise to galactine permits it to be re- 

 garded as forming a part of the materials from 

 which the females of herbivorous animals de- 

 rive the elements of the sugar of milk that is 

 secreted by their organs of lactation, the origin 

 of which is still involved in mystery. Sugar 

 of milk is of rare occurrence in the vegetable 

 kingdom, and has been detected with certainty 

 only by M. G. Benchardat, in the juice of the 

 sapota. 



Dr. T. L. Phipson has described a new col- 

 oring-matter, ruberine, which he has extracted 

 from the Agaricus ruber, a poisonous fungus, 

 and which possesses interesting optical and 

 chemical qualities. It is of a beautiful rose-red 

 color, very similar to that of palrnerine ; when 

 seen by transmitted light it presents a very 

 vivid blue fluorescence ; and it gives in its 

 spectrum two wide and dark absorption-bands 

 in the green. Ruberine is soluble in water and 

 alcohol, in solutions that are rose-red by trans- 

 mission and blue by reflection. Dr. Phipson 

 imperfectly isolated the alkaloid from the Aga- 

 ricus ruber, which he calls agaracine, in the 

 form of a white or yellowish-white amorphous 

 substance, somewhat greasy in aspect, with a 

 distinctly bitter taste, followed by a burning 

 sensation on the tongue and a slight odor of its 

 own kind, easily fusible into pale- yellow glob- 

 ules, and volatile with an odor recalling that of 

 quinoloine. It dissolves in alcohol and ether, 

 and slowly but completely in dilute hydro- 

 chloric acid. Observing that air transforms 

 the alkaloid into the red coloring-matter, Dr. 

 Phipson concludes that the coloring-matter in 

 the plant is formed from the alkaloid at those 

 points of the fungus that are at the same time 

 in contact with the air and the solar rays 

 which is where it is most conspicuous. Both 

 plants belong to the aromatic series. As ru- 

 berine is very easily soluble in water, it some- 

 times happens that heavy rains wash it out of 

 the head of the fungus, and give the plant a 

 peculiar bleached appearance. 



A new carbon sulphobromide has been ob- 

 tained by mixing bromine and carbon disul- 

 phide, allowing them to settle, distilling off the 

 excess of carbon disulphide, and crystallizing 

 the brownish oily residue under the action of 

 water. It is carbon trisulpho-hexa-bromide 



, and has the form of small bright 

 prismatic crystals or rhombic plates, fuses at 

 125 to a red liquid, and solidifies unchanged 

 on cooling. At higher temperatures it decom- 

 poses, evolving brown-red condensible fumes, 

 and leaving a coal. When pure is has no odor 

 or taste. It is insoluble in water, and hardly 

 soluble in cold ether, alcohol, and glacial acetic 

 acid. 



Mr. Charles Upham Shepard has described 

 two new minerals found in the Tertiary lime- 

 stone of the Twin Islands, Mona and Moneta, 

 near Porto Rico, West Indies. They have been 

 formed by percolation of water from the su- 

 perficial beds of guano into the limestone lying 

 under them, and are named monetite and monite. 

 Monetite occurs in a highly crystalline form, 

 and is described as a crystalline dicalcic hydric- 

 phosphate, or dicalcic-ortho-phosphate differ- 

 ing from that artificially prepared in not con- 

 taining water of crystallization. Monite is a 

 hydrated tricalcic phosphate, and resembles in 

 color and density the more friable varieties of 

 kaolinite. In the same islands was found a 

 pyroclasite, which may be a uniform compound 

 of monetite and monite, or only a mechanical 

 mixture of the two, and is " eminently prone 

 to admixture with gypsite, aluminum and iron 

 phosphates, silica, and organic matter." 



Anhydrous crystalline hasmatein is obtained 

 by treatment of the ammonio-compound of 

 hsematein with strong acetic acid, in micro- 

 scopic rhombic plates, solvable in water, al- 

 cohol, ether, acetic acid, and alkalies. The 

 composition of the crystals is represented by 

 the formula, CielliaCV By treating hsematein 

 with cold concentrated sulphuric acid, and 

 adding acetic acid, Messrs. J. J, Hummel and 

 A. G. Perkin have obtained an orange- colored 

 powder composed of microscopic prismatic 

 crystals of acid isohsematein sulphate. It is 

 insoluble in alcohol, ether, and benzole, but 

 soluble in ammonia and sulphur solutions, and 

 to a small extent in acetic acid. Isohaematein 

 chlorhydrin is produced, by heating hffimatein 

 in sealed tubes with hydrochloric acid, in mi- 

 croscopic red needles. It dissolves easily in 

 water, is less soluble in alcohol, and gives a 

 reddish violet solution with alcoholic potash. 

 It is converted by concentrated sulphuric acid 

 into isohsematein sulphate. With hydrobrornic 

 acid, haematein gives isohaemauein monobrom- 

 hydrin. By treating either of the last two 

 substances with argentic hydrate, isohaematein, 

 isomeric with hsematein, is obtained. 



Crystalline brazilein is obtained from Brazil- 

 wood extract in the same manner that hsema- 

 tein is obtained from logwood extract. It forms 

 thin microscopic reddish-brown rhombic plates, 

 very slightly soluble in cold water, more so in 

 hot, and soluble in alkalies. The formula of its 

 composition is CieHiaOeHaO. With sulphuric 

 acid it gives acid isobrazilein sulphate, with 

 hydrochloric acid isobrazilein chlorhydrin, and 

 with hydrobromic acid the corresponding bro- 

 mine compound. The tinctorial power of the 



