i8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
QuLY 1, i89j. 
hydroxyl equivalent present in the secondary regeante 
employed. The reaction was, therefore, Buoh a 
one as: — 
0,,H,,NaN,0l^ + CH3l + H,0==„H2,N,,0,CH3l 
+ NaHO. 
A little juggling on paper makes the product 
OjoHj^NjOj, Hi (quinine hydriodide), 
but this do68 not happen in practice. The iodine 
Rtoms behave as if it were linked with all thereat 
of Jh^ atoms in the molecule as a whole, that is, as 
it ii wtre OjnHjjNjOjI. It will be seen from this 
wherein lay GiitUfiux and ArLaud's opportunity. They 
take a methylene compound, produoe OjjHjjNjOj, 
CHjOl, or, substantially, 0, ^N30201, out away 
the chlorine from it, and quinine is lelt. 
Ad a chemical achievement this euooeps is note- 
worthy, but it comes five years too late to be of much 
commercial imporsance. Ouprea bark as a member of 
the materia medica is almost dead. It does not pay 
to go into the primeval forests ia the centre of South 
Ameticia, fell giaut trees, strip the bark and briiig it 
on mules' backs to the coast, thence to be shipped to 
Loudou to compete with oinchonp. The icfluouce of 
the discovery upon the quinine market may therefore, 
apart altogether from the cos', of ;>roductiw;. m-, 
down at p;:eseut as nil. Bui is c itaiuly (/ratir'^'iij^; 
to know t'lat qnit.ine has be. . , tnici i.y, and 
eveu if Grimaux aud AroHi h -.x:' 1^- tu^nec; .'u* to 
be the isomeride qniuidife, ihu^ ■, ju'u be no lees 
interesting. Of courso tSit. acbievempn^ throws tio 
light on the oonstitutiou of quinine, which stands as 
Skraup has leit it — viz., that it is a derivative of 
paramethoxy-quinoliup. leomerides o£ quinine have 
been prepared. The first was about live years ago by 
Dr. C. A. Kohn, its empirical formula being the same 
as quinine, but constitutionally it was by hydroxy- 
hydreethylenequinolme,'* There ia little in common 
between this and quinine. Another isomerio substance 
was made fully a year ago by Wallach and Otto. It 
is Bioolenitrol-ieto-naphthylamine, and its solutioDS, 
as well as solutions of its salts, are highly fluorescent. 
This substance was referred to at the time as an 
isomeride of camphor, which obviously is a mistake, 
seeing that it contains nitrogen and has an emfiirical 
formula the same as quini'ue. — Chemist and Dru^yiit. 
EEVOLUTION IN JEWELLEEY. 
The discovery of a new " dry digging " in South 
Africa follows hard on the aunouncemenfe of M. M. 
Fremy and Verneuil's Bucceaa in manufacturing rubies. 
The civilised world was disoussing that event a few 
weeks ago, and tradepmen interested found it necessary 
to send reassuring circulars to the press. Their in- 
genuity will be taxed to fumish comfort nn<ler this 
latter blow, if rumours prove exact. The pusiti.m of 
the new field and the eircum.slanoea of its identifica- 
tion are not yet clenr. But we learn that the Com- 
pany has bought it for £100,000, thnt a multitude of 
diggers have '' rushed " the spot, and that the finds, 
so far, promise another Oolesberg Kopje. It is bad 
news for owners of diamonds, and, in fact, for every- 
body else except the few who will mf:ke money out of 
ttieir claims. Even the revenue ol Oape Colony will 
not benefit— quite otherwise. The historic faoa^evjife 
who killed the goose with the golden eggs supplies a 
precedent. 
Sujiposing those reports prove true, as seems likely, 
and also that M IVI.Fr<;my and "Verneuil achieve p!1 that 
they ccinfidtntly expect, as seemx more likely .'^till, a 
rnvolution must follow. Wi'll-informed pev.sotia v;ho 
exiok value for their money hp.ve long been rch;ctant 
to buy diamonds. They looked for the news which 
hn» now arrived ; a.id if it should torn out. false this 
time, their t^pc:)ta< :on will rest tit; firm as ever. That 
there are dry ficMs in Sooth Africa— fitdd.-t, that is, 
where gerau are found in situ, whoro they wore crys- 
tallized — ia an certain ns facts undemonstrati d c»n 
yuite to !— El), T, A. 
be. If only one of them fall into the bands of inde- 
pendent diggers, tha market will be upset ; the lively 
old times will return when a casual fellow-paBeeciger 
by 'bus may have a pocketful of diamonds consigned 
to him by a lueky friend or brother at the Fields. 
Under such conditions already the great merchants 
have been driven to despair, aud the confusion would 
be vastly worse now. As for the triumph of the 
French chemists, it ia clear that if they can make rabies 
hard enough to be employed as pivots in watches, and 
" much larger,' the time is near when they will pro- 
duce stones of any size to order. Thirty years these 
gentlemen have worked, and their progress has been 
so slow that it is likely to be sure. Within the last 
few months only, as they tell us, the secret of mak- 
ing large gema has been traced out. But if rubies 
can be manufactured, all the great class of crystals 
to which they ielong can be manufactured also. It 
is Bimply a question of the colouring material. The 
same process, with blue substituted, will yield sapphires 
with orange-yellow the grand Oriental topaz, and so 
forth. Pearls, emeralds, and opala, in fact, among 
gema of the first claaa, will defy M M. Fr6my and 
Verneuil for the present. 
It is a very uncomfortable prospect for holdera of 
family jewels, hut the vacuus viator who is a man of 
taste "du'S not lack consolation. Flashing diamonds 
..iid sle^-'.ming rn't.i 'B are vastly pretty but essentially 
narbario. Ttal term is used now for Oriental jewellery, 
",-hioh to a oultu.td and thoughtful eye is the per- 
fection of art in i1 b style. Whut is meant by the word 
" barbaric " used in reference to such matters ? Most 
people would answer, an ostentatious oisplay of costly 
material unrefined by art. It is properly employed 
in describing the p.araphernalia of an Aahnntee chief, 
whose arms are so loaded with nuggets of pure gold 
that he has to rest them, outstretched, _ upon the 
shoulders of a slave preceding him. It is properly 
employed in speaking of the old Turkish ornaments 
—a confused medley of precious stones which one used 
to find in the Bzenttan at Btamboul but few re- 
main at this day. Not improperly also it may be 
applied to the maseive rings, braealete, and such articles, 
which are especial favonritea with our countrymen 
" neat but not gaudy," as they ssy, massive gold of 
twenty-two earats, with a great fUroiog diamond or 
group of gems solidly set therein, with no " gimcrack " 
about them ; notbirg but honest gold worth so much 
and stones worths much more. The value is obvious 
—an expert can calculate it at a glance. Money ia 
hot wasted on design or charm ef fancy. An idiot 
who bad the use of his bands and had served an ap- 
prenticeship tn a good craftsman oonld make the thing 
a? well as the best Paris artist, This represents a step 
beyond the Ashantee cabooees ; but it is the same in 
principle : a display of mere wealth. But the term 
"barbaric " could never be u.-ed, by a thinking person 
who has an eye for beauty, towards the jewel work of 
Oashmere, for inatanoe, or Jejpore. For its value lies 
in the art alone. The gold may be beaten as thin 
as tissue-paper, the gems may be mere scales aud chips 
which an English artisan would not pick up. Those things 
are simply vehicles used by the artist to produce his 
effects of colour. Sir George Birdwood says, speak- 
ing of the best Indian goldsmiths, " by their consum- 
mate skill and thorough knowledge aud appreoiatiou 
they contrive to give to the least possible weight of 
metal, and to gems absolutely vululess, the highest 
possible artistic value, never even in their excessive 
elaboration of detail, violating the fundamenial priu- 
ciplos of ornamental (iesign i.or aihiig to pleafe, even 
though it bo an effect of bar'naric riehuesa and super- 
fluity." We may well ■■■-Bk where the "barbarism" comes 
in if the work be of " the highast possible artistic 
value " ? 
Such ideas must needs ha eradicated when gems cease 
to represent a great sum in monfly. They will then 
fall to their proper use, that to which the Indian arti- 
ficer baa always put them. He will make jewellery 
to tbe Kajah's order as expcnsiTo as may be desired 
Hot with great fiUmea ; but his taste prefers to work 
up these chips aud scales, using them as points of lumi- 
Doaa colour iu a thoughtful compoeition. Therefore 
