4 
ME. J. BEOIJGHTON’S CHEMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL 
chonidine. The wood of C. officinalis contains much less. All the several alkaloids 
have been satisfactorily identified in the bases obtained from wood, by being obtained 
in well-defined microscopic crystals yielding in solution their respective reactions. 
The beautiful scented blossoms contain no alkaloids, but are rich in quinovin and 
quinic acid. 
The fruit also contains no alkaloids. It is very sour from the presence of quinic acid ; 
it is a most convenient source of this acid. The juice of the fruit mixed with milk of 
lime and filtered, readily yields on evaporation an abundant crop of crystals of calcic 
quinate. 
The ripe seed contains but traces of the characteristic principles of cinchona and no 
alkaloids. 
The milky fluid which fills the laticiferous vessels cannot be obtained in sufficient 
quantity for analysis. It is not bitter, and contains in all probability little or no alka- 
loid. These vessels are rarely contained in the trunk - bark of C. succirubra, and can 
therefore scarcely be supposed to be concerned (directly at least) in the production of 
alkaloids. 
State of combination in which the Alkaloids exist in the Bark. 
This, after many trials, was determined by the following method. A quantity of the 
best trunk-bark of C. succirubra was exposed to strong pressure in a very powerful 
screw-press, by which means the juices were pressed out so perfectly that the bark was 
apparently almost dry ; and subsequent examination under the microscope showed that 
the parenchymatous cells were quite broken up, and many of the liber-cells also. 
The juice at first obtained was of a greenish-yellow colour; it, however, absorbed 
oxygen rapidly and became red. When first obtained, it was very turbid from the 
presence of much alkaloid tannate of a grey colour, rapidly becoming brownish red ; 
this soon subsided in a well-corked flask, and left the liquid clear. The supernatant 
liquid was bitter and strongly acid from free quinic acid ; it also contained free tannin. 
Its specific gravity was l 1 034 at 17° C. 
It was now assumed that the whole of the moisture lost by the bark on drying over 
oil of vitriol represented the water of this juice; this assumption, if not entirely true, 
will not differ sufficiently from the truth to seriously affect the subsequent results. The 
water of hydration of the woody fibre &c. parted with under the circumstances would 
obviously be a very small portion of the whole; hence the specific gravity of the juice 
being known, the whole weight of juice present in the bark is also known. 
If, now, the whole amount of alkaloid present in the bark is determined, and also that 
contained in solution in the juice, the difference will express the amount of alkaloids 
existing in an insoluble form in the living bark. 
The analytical data are as follow : — 
