NOTES AND ABSTRACTS IN CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACY. 291 
and the glycerine made to enter, drop by drop, from a reservoir placed two feet 
above the earthenware jars. To agitate the mixture M. Mowbray employs cold 
air. For this purpose a glass tube is plunged into each vessel, and by a caout¬ 
chouc tube and tap, is placed in communication with cold, compressed air. 
When the reaction occurs, the temperature rises, and red vapours are evolved; 
the workman moves the glass tube through the mass of the liquid, which, being 
traversed by the current of air, is promptly cooled, at the same time that the 
nitrous vapours are carried off. 
Forty-two kilogrammes of glycerine yield ninety-four kilogrammes of nitro¬ 
glycerine. The product is perfectly limpid and colourless at 9° C.; below this 
temperature it is congealed, and then resembles bruised ice, in which state it is 
not explosive, and can be transported without danger. The author states that 
nitro-glycerine, purer than that hitherto manufactured, occasions no headache 
to the mining workmen. M. Mowbray’s nitro-glycerine dilates by congelation, 
while the ordinary nitro-glycerine contracts under the same conditions; this is 
explained by the presence of vapours of hyponitrous acid in the latter, which 
are absent in the former. 
A New Test for Nitric Acid. 
Sulphate of aniline is stated to be a surprisingly delicate test for nitric acid. 
About a cubic centimetre of pure concentrated sulphuric acid (sp. gr. TS4) 
is placed in a watch-glass; half a cub. centimetre of a solution of sulphate of 
aniline (formed by adding ten drops of commercial aniline to 50 c. c. of diluted 
sulphuric acid in the proportion of 1 to 6) is poured on, drop by drop; a glass 
tube is moistened with the liquid to be tested and moved circularly in the 
watch-glass. By blowing on the mixture during the gentle agitation, when a 
trace of nitric acid is present, circular striee are developed of a very intense red 
colour, tinting the liquid rose. With more than a trace of nitric acid the colour 
becomes carmine, passing to a brownish-red. This process serves to detect the 
presence of nitric or nitrous acid in the sulphuric acid of commerce. It will 
also reveal the presence of nitrates in water. 
On the Oxidation of Cinchonine and the Probable Existence of a 
New Alkaloid in the Cinchonas. 
Am important paper on this subject was recently presented to the Chemical 
Society of Paris by Messrs. Caventon and Wiilm. 
When a cold saturated solution of permanganate of potash is added drop by 
drop to a cold acidulated solution of sulphate of cinchonine, the decoloration is 
instantaneous, and hydrated peroxide of mangauese is deposited. This addition 
is continued until the colour of the permanganate remains permanent for several 
minutes. To attain this point, about equal parts of sulphate of cinchonine and 
permanganate should be employed. Whatever care be taken to cool the mix¬ 
ture, a disengagement of carbonic acid always occurs towards the middle of the 
reaction ; but the authors have never observed any formation of ammonia or of 
nitric acid. The change produced is very complex; the principal products 
being the following:—1. An indifferent body named cincliotenine , uniting 
either with bases or with acids, but giving well-defined compounds. 2. A well- 
crystallized acid, named carboxycinchonic acid. 3. A substance reducing the 
cupro-potassic tartrate. Independently of these products of oxidation, a peculiar 
base is also obtained, differing from cinchonine by two additional atoms of hy¬ 
drogen, which the authors therefore name hydrocinchonine. 
To separate this base and the products resulting from the action of the per¬ 
manganate upon the cinchonine, the following method may be employed. The 
amber-yellow solution, separated by filtration from the precipitate of manganic 
hydrate is evaporated to dryness by a water bath, and the residue exhausted by 
