clxxviii Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIII. 



comprising the saline salts but is due to the physical effect they exert on 

 the protoplasm of the plant cell in causing plasmolysis. 



Chemical analysis alone is useless in examining a saline soil with a 

 view to determining either the cause of sterility or the degree of cure 

 effected in reclaiming such a soil for agricultural purposes. It is pointed 

 out in the paper that the direct measurement of the osmotic pressure of 

 the soil salts in solution would be too difficult and lengthy to be of practical 

 utility and the indirect measurement by crop tests lengthy and expensive. 

 This working result is achieved by the use of soil bacteria and measuring 

 their rate of chemical activity. The paper describes the biochemical 

 methods used in determining the chemical activity of carbon oxidising or- 

 ganisms, the ammonifying and nitrifying bacteria and the nitrogen-fixing 

 activity of bacteria of the azotobacter type. 



Tabulated statements are given of the study of the soils of an experi- 

 mental farm at Xarwala in the Punjab where saline land has been sucess- 

 fu ly reclaimed and abnormally high yields of crops obtained ; as much as 

 ' * ™ aunds of wheat P er acre bein g obtained in one field. 



I ho paper contains a tabulated statement of crop outturns on the 



-Narwala farm where the biochemical methods described in the paper 

 Have been used in reclaiming the land. 



Metallic Derivatives of Alkaloids. Part I.— By J. N. Rakshit. 



♦i™ T 5 e sodiuni and Potassium derivatives of codeine and sodium derive- 

 ™vf- na ? cotlne are J obtained by boiling them in benzene ; and calcium 

 morphine is prepared by rubbing morphine with lime in rectified spirit. 



The Sodium Bisulphite Test for Formic Acid and an attempt 

 to reduce the Aliphatic Acids to their corresponding alde- 

 hydes.— % s. C. Chatterji. 



bisnlnSrjJ to CwnMriuccta' statement it has been shown that sodium 

 acid P Th* r 25 % a " a conven ient reagent for the detection of formic 



us ht 7nl S, i °u an atteni Pt t0 re duce the aliphatic acids to aldehydes 

 using /n. and Mg. has then been given. 



Detection of Lactic and Glycollic Acids and a Suggestion about 



the Constitution of Morphine.-% S. C. Chatterji. 



acids A b^ d o? , i g - With C6r * ain Colour actions of lactic and glycollic 

 pectivek on TrplT CO " ver i lon int « acetaJdehyde and formaldehyde res- 

 formufa Chilli "* "^ COI >eentrated H&O,, a new constitutional 

 stuch -of tne 1 JL P - r0p ° 9 ! d f ° r morphine. The suggestion is based on a 

 tabiL Ldol^n ° U / ° f morphine > codeine > "dole and proteins con- 

 tratcH^H sn ^u PS towards formaldehyde or acetaldehvdo and concen- 



trated HjSOi. Th 

 asa 



result nt hJ; co i nclu ? ion arrived at is the same as that of Bucherer 

 result of his mvest.gation on the action of sulphites or morphine. 



Space representation of Nitrogen in Organic Ammonium com- 

 pounds by means of a single tetrahedron.— By P. Neogi. 



W dlgerodt ^doutlT? I" 2S Paper that neither V an't Hoff's cubic, or 

 n.trSnin ortlnt » tetrah . ed ren or Bischoff's pyramid representation o 

 n»3^wLh^S e ;S.? OI | lu ? Com P° un ds explains recent experimental 

 -ingle trtrahJ^n Sat .^ ac ' on, y explained by representing nitrogen as a 

 •^nda^DK?™?,* 1 ? the native radical attached to it but in the 

 adop n t d o?o Jft^nLte S^^ he f °, ll0Wing c °nsiderations necessitate the 



adnnHnn ,yVvT • t °^">u. me following - 

 ^option of the angle tetrahedron formula : 



