﻿Skey. — On a New Process for Generating Suljihuretted Ifydroijen Gas. 321 



It appears, however, that if the solution of digitaline is boiled with acid 

 prior to the mixing with copper and potash, a great reduction of the copper 

 will take place on raising their temperatufe to 200° Fahr. 



Taking all these facts into consideration, I am inclined to believe that the 

 bitter of the karaka nut is a glucoside, and that digitaline falls into the same 

 class, though I have not known this character imputed to it before. 



An appropriate name for this bitter principle of the karaka will be, I think, 

 haraJdne, and this name, therefore, I propose to give it. 



Having failed, after a careful examination of the nut for vegetable 

 alkaloids, to find any principle having the characters of these bodies, I con- 

 clude that the bitter substance here treated of (karakine) is the poisonous 

 part of it ; but riot having sufficient of this principle separated to allow of 

 a proper trial of its effects upon the animal system, I am unable to confirm 

 or disprove the correctness of these surmises, but I hope at an early date 

 to be able to supplement this paper by a statement of results of experiments 

 undertaken to settle the question. 



As being connected with this subject I may state, in conclusion, that the 

 inner bark of the tree is also bitter, probably from the presence of karakine. 

 The outer bark is not bitter, but astringent from the presence of tannin, while 

 the sap, the wood, and the leaf (which is, I hear, wholesome to cattle) taste 

 sweet (sugar), with not the least bitterness. These observations v/ere taken 

 in July. 



Art. lAY .^On a New and liapid Process for the GeneraMon of SulpliuretteA 



Hydrogen Gas for use as a Re-agent in Laboratory Operations. 



By Y/. Skey, Analyst to the Geological Survey of New Zealand. 



\Ilead before the Wellington Philosopliical Society, 26th August, 1871.] 



Sulphuretted hydrogen gas is in such constant use in all laboratories, that I 

 ofiier no excuse for submitting a new process for its generation, particularly as 

 there appears to be a positive want for a better one than that at present in 

 ordinary use. Indeed, owing to this want several processes have lately been 

 published for its preparation esj^ecially having for their object a combi- 

 nation of evenness and constancy of delivery, but I have not learnt that the 

 advantages promised by their several authors have been realised in actual 

 practice. In consequence it occurred to me to try whether the reaction of 

 metallic siilphides with zinc in acidified water, described in the third volume 

 of our Transactions,^ could not be turned to account for the pi'oduction of 

 this gas. 



See Trans. K Z. Inst., Vol. III., p. 222. 



