300 



DRUGS, NEW. 



water at 13 C., and with alcohol or ether in 

 all proportions. Its aqueous solution becomes 

 cloudy when heated, and the drug itself should 

 l>e kept from light in glass-stoppered, full bot- 

 tles. As an agent for producing sleep, par- 

 aldehyde seems to be somewhat inferior to 

 chloral hydrate, and its use, in some instances, 

 causes more or less disturbance of the stomach, 

 even when a dose of a half drachm is diluted 

 with a half glass of water. 



Parthenine, obtained from Parthenium Jiys- 

 trerophorus, an herb growing in Jamaica, has 

 been used by Tovar as a remedy for facial neu- 

 ralgia. The " bitter broom " (Escoba amarga) 

 of Cuba is said by Dr. A. L. Esporon, of Ha- 

 vana, to yield the same alkaloid. Its use is 

 most suitable for neuralgias of malarial origin, 

 but in Jamaica the drug is also employed in 

 skin diseases ; one-tenth grain of the alkaloid 

 is a usual dose, given hourly at first and after- 

 ward less often and in smaller quantity. 



Pereirine. The hydrochlorate is lately rec- 

 ommended by Fereira as a substitute for qui- 

 nine in obstinate cases of malarial fever, in 

 doses of thirty grains daily, increased to sixty 

 grains if necessary. It is derived from the Puo 

 Pareiro (Geissospermum lave, Baillon ; natural 

 order ApocynacecB), native of Brazil, where the 

 bark has been used since 1830, when it was 

 recommended by Prof. Silva as a febrifuge and 

 antiperiodic. Other names by which the bark 

 is known are Pignaciba and Canudo amargoso. 

 Santos, who first extracted the active principle 

 in 1838, called it pereirine, but more recently 

 geissospermine was proposed by Bochefontaine 

 and De Freitas, and Dr. O. Hesse, who has still 

 later examined the drug, announces the exist- 

 ence of at least two alkaloids, one of which, 

 very soluble in ether and most nearly resem- 

 bling the alkaloid first obtained, he calls perei- 

 rine, and the other, which is with difficulty 

 soluble in ether, geissospermine. The first is a 

 white, amorphous powder, and is most abun- 

 dant ; the other forms small, white, prismatic 

 crystals, which are readily soluble in acids 

 and alcohol, but nearly insoluble in water or 

 ether. 



Picramine, derived from the bark of Cascara 

 amarga, growing in the West Indies, and the 

 preparations of the bark whence it is derived, 

 have been recently introduced as remedies in 

 chronic skin diseases and syphilis. 



Qninoline, an artificial alkaloid derived from 

 coal-tar, which has been proposed as an anti- 

 pyretic, is now hardly thought of for that pur- 

 pose, but is used, instead, as the basis for the 

 manufacture of kairine and antipyrine (which 

 see). Range discovered it in 1834, and called it 

 "leucol" (white oil) ; the German name for it 

 is ChinoUn. Gerhardt obtained it in 1842 by 

 distilling cinchonine with caustic potash, and 

 in 1880 Skraup and Koenig discovered the 

 simple process for preparing it on a large scale 

 by mixing 24 parts of nitre-benzol, 38 parts of 

 aniline, and 120 parts of glycerin in a flask of a 

 capacity for 2,000 parts, and provided with an 



upright condenser; 100 parts of sulphuric acid 

 are added, and the whole shaken until the ani- 

 line sulphate is dissolved. It is heated on a 

 sand-bath until reaction begins, when it is 

 withdrawn until the reaction slackens. This 

 is repeated until but little unaltered nitro-benzol 

 is present. Water is then added, and unchanged 

 nitro-benzol is driven over by heat. Render 

 the residue alkaline, and drive over the mixture 

 of quinoline and aniline by steam or extract 

 them by ether. Separate these two as much 

 as possible by fractional distillation, and remove 

 the last traces of aniline by treating the base, 

 in sulphuric-acid solution, with bichromate of 

 potassium. When oxidation is completed, render 

 again alkaline, and drive the quinoline over by 

 steam. The yield of pure quinoline amounts to 

 from 70 to 75 per cent, of the mixture of aniline 

 and nitro-benzol. Quinoline is a colorless liquid, 

 boiling at 238 C. ; sp. gr. 1-094 at 20 C. It 

 forms crystalline salts with acids. 



Strophanthin, derived from StropJiantJius Jiis- 

 pidus (S. Tcombi, Oliver). The crude drug 

 comes from Guinea and Senegambia, where 

 the negroes prepare from it an arrow-poison 

 called kombe, or inee, and is a woody climber, 

 flowering in October or November. The fol- 

 licles, ten to twelve inches long, contain 150 

 to 200 seeds, weighing each about half a grain, 

 and bear a plume-like tuft at the extremity 

 of a delicate stalk. The active principle (stro- 

 phanthiri) is crystalline, intensely active, and 

 allied to digitalin. It is recommended by Prof. 

 Fraser, of England, as an active diuretic in 

 hypodermic doses of T ^ to -fa of a grain. 



Styrone, cinnamic alcohol, is obtained by 

 treating styracin with concentrated solution of 

 potash. It is said to be a more powerful anti- 

 septic than either phenol (carbolic acid) or 

 thymol, one to five hundred of urine showing 

 no trace of decomposition at the end of three 

 and a half months. 



Syzygium jambolanum, the seeds (or fruit) of a 

 myrtaceous plant native to East Indies and 

 cultivated in the Antilles, is a newly proposed 

 remedy for favoring the elimination of sugar in 

 diabetes. The active principle is supposed to 

 exist in the integument. 



Tannate of Punieine has been proposed as a 

 substitute for the name tannate of pelletier- 

 ine. Punieine is a crystallizable alkaloid ob- 

 tained from the root-bark of the pomegranate, 

 and has been recommended as an efficient rem- 

 edy for tape- worm, although reports of its fail- 

 ure have been published recently. 



Thalline (tetraliydroparacJiinanisol) is a coal- 

 tar derivative, and is used in the form of 

 a tartrate and a sulphate. Its salts are all 

 soluble in water, have an acid reaction, and 

 yield green salts when mixed with solution of 

 ferric chloride and oxidizing substances. . 

 v. Jaksch reported in October, 1884, his trials 

 in Vienna with this new substance, which was 

 found to possess antipyretic properties inferior 

 to those of kairine and quinoline (which see). 

 It is, however, free from secondary effects fol- 



