256 report— 1859. 



Chemistry. 



On the Action of concentrated Sulphuric Acid on Cubebin in relation to the test 

 for Strychnine by Bichromate of Potash and Sulphuric Acid. By James 

 S. Brazier, F.C.S., Fordyce Lecturer in Marischal College, Aberdeen. 



In the 'Chemical Gazette,' vol. xiv. page 251, there is an account by M. E. Boli, 

 Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy at the Academy of Medicine in Lima, of the 

 behaviour of several organic substances towards bichromate of potash and sulphuric 

 acid. All the substances enumerated by him appear to have a well-marked di- 

 stinction by means of this test to that of strychnine, most giving a colour of some 

 shade of green ; some few, no reaction whatever. Casually repeating a similar series 

 of experiments as a class illustration, with such alkaloids as I had in my possession, 

 using at once KO, 2CrS0 3 and HOS0 3 , I found that cubebin gave a reaction very 

 different to many, and approached to some extent the reaction of strychnine, the 

 colour produced being deep rose-red, which is perhaps more likely to be confused 

 with the colour produced by strychnine, when the reaction has been standing for a 

 short time, or if the alkaloid is in small quantity, or if the dish in which the experi- 

 ment has been performed is not absolutely cold. I found, however, that by allowing 

 the cubebin reaction to remain for some considerable time, the red colour gradually 

 changed to a dingy green. 



On repeating the experiment in other ways, I found that the sulphuric acid alone 

 was sufficient to produce this red colour with cubebine, and as strychnine produces 

 no colour with sulphuric acid alone, this serves as an easy test between the two. 



The reaction above alluded to was quite new to me; nor could I find it noticed in 

 any Journal; so that I thought it worthy of a comment on the present occasion. 



On Distilled Water. By James S. Brazier, F.C.S., Fordyce Lecturer in 



Marischal College, Aberdeen. 



Notice of Dugong Oil. By James S. Brazier, F.C.S., Fordyce Lecturer 



in Marischal College, Aberdeen. 



The author presented notices of a remedy, obtainable in Moreton Bay, possessing 

 valuable properties for the renovation and restoration of the human frame when 

 worn out and exhausted by chronic disease. The discovery of such an agent within 

 our own territory has long been considered a desideratum by the profession ; and it 

 appears to be a remarkable as well as felicitous arrangement of nature, that, in a locality 

 possessing probably one of the finest climates in the world — combining both the 

 soft humid atmosphere of Torquay and Madeira in the summer, with the dry bracing 

 air of Nice and Pau in the winter, the resort, too, of valetudinarians from all parts 

 of the world— a remedy should be found so potent in the treatment of chronic dis- 

 orders. 



About fourteen or fifteen years ago Baron Liebig's work on Animal Chemistry 

 was first published, explaining the chemical process of respiration and nutrition, 

 suggesting the method which ought to be adopted, and the principles which ought 

 to guide us in the investigation of that important subject. Liebig, in that masterly 

 work, compared the animal body to an apparatus of combustion, a furnace which 

 we supplied with fuel, and showed that this combustion was supported by the 

 oxygen of the atmosphere taken into the lungs in the act of respiration, meeting 

 with the carbon taken into the system in the process of nutrition. Two or three 

 years after the appearance of this work, a highly carbonized substance called cod- 

 liver oil became a popular remedy in the treatment of consumption, to feed probably 

 the flame of "the expiring lamp," as Kirke White in his ' Sonnet to Consumption' 

 so beautifully yet significantly expresses it; and since that period its use has been 

 progressively increasing, until at length its administration has become universal in 

 almost every form of chronic disease. 



At first it was thought that the infinitesimal proportion of iodine which cod-liver 

 oil contained was its active element; but that theory being now exploded, its powers 

 are generally attributed to the 80 or 90 per cent, of carbon it contains. This oil is 

 procured from the livers of cod fish, and its taste is as disagreeable as its train-oil-like 



