ON THE CHEMISTRY OF AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTS. 205 
3. Chlorine and bromine attack the gum violently, forming a 
lackish substance soluble in alcohol with the latter, 
ith the former carbon only remains. 
4, Caustic alkalies boiled with the gum forms a light yellow 
har : 
Subjected to dry distillation it yields a brown heavy oil havi 
a green fluorescence, mixed with water, and a dark red solid is left 
behind, which solidifies on cooling. Less than half the dried oil 
distilled below 320°, and the greater portion of this distilled between 
155° and 165°. This portion was nearly colourless, immiscible 
with water, soluble in alcohol, had at 20° a specific gravity of ‘854, 
and on combustion gave numbers approximating to the formula 
‘ H,, 0; Hydrochloric acid changes it toa dark greenish brown 
iquid. 
Kauri eum. R. D. Thomson. (Ann. Ch. Phys. [3] IX, 499. 
Watt’s Dict. II, 301. 
is resin consists of an acid resin, dammaric acid, and a neutral 
resin, dammaran, the first being soluble in alcohol. By sponta- 
neous evaporation of an alkaline solution, the acid resin is deposi 
in crystalline grains containing 72°64 per cent. C, 9°31 per cent. H, 
and 18 per cent. O. A boiling alcoholic solution gives a precipitate 
with alcoholic ammoniacal silver nitrate, which contains 146 to 
1475 per cent. of oxide of silver. The author represents the resin 
a8 Uy H;, O,, and the silver compound as Oy Hy Ag O,. 
The neutral resin insoluble in ordinary alcohol dissolves to a 
colourless varnish in abolute alcohol or oil of turpentine. It gave 
on analysis 75-02 per cent. C, and 9°6 per cent. H, and the autho 
fives its formula as OC, H,, O; It absorbs oxygen on long-con 
ued heating. Distilled alone gently the resin yields dammarol, 
an amber-coloured volatile oil containing 82°22 per cent. C. and 
11-1 per cent. H. Distilled with lime it yields a different yellow 
: oil, called dammarone. 
Kuraxine. W. Skey. (Chem. News, XXVII, 191.) 
The nut of the kuraka tree (Corynocarpus laevigata) of New 
Zealand, although intensely bitter and poisonous, is used for food 
by the Maoris, after undergoing a preliminary treatment by roast- 
ing and washing. 
The bitter principle, which is poisonous, is obtained by washing 
the ground nuts in water, the solution acidulated with acetic acid 
to precipitate casein, &ec., and the clear liquid shaken with animal 
, Which extracts the bitter principle, and again yields it 
‘to alcohol, from which it crystallizes by spontaneous evaporation 1n 
‘steular crystals, The crystals are white with a pearly lustre, 
Intensely bitter, fecbly acid. At 212° F. they melt. With sulphuric 
ive a dark rose colouration. The substance is soluble in 
Mid giv 
Water, alcohol, hydrochloric and acetic acid, ammonia, and po’ ; 
