404 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[November 23, 1872. 
Rhamni Sncciis is seldom met with in a state of 
purity; generally it contains 50 per cent, of addi¬ 
tional water, and sometimes more. True juice will 
have a specific gravity of P070, and sometimes, 
when expressed from berries in a dry season, it 
will be of the density P075. (This year the crop of 
buckthorn berries has been a total failure on account 
of the late spring frosts.) 
Spintus Armor acice Comp .—It is necessary in 
distilling one gallon, as directedin the Pharmacopoeia, 
to add three pints of water instead of two pints. If 
two pints only be used, it will be found, that so much 
44,175 chests Behar, at 1200 rupees 
37,420 „ Malwa, at 600 „ _ 
Opium supplied for retail sale in 
North India. 
Miscellaneous receipts, Bengal . . 
£ 
5,301,000 
2,245,200 
152,000 
1,800 
<£7,700,000 
The average prices realized at the opium sales in 
August in Calcutta were for 2000 chests Behar, 
1470 rupees; for 1575 chests Benares, 1432 rupees, 
being a considerable advance upon the previous 
water is absorbed by the dried orange peel and horse-j month’s rates, which were 1439 and 1409 rupees 
radish, that the gallon of distillate will be at least respectively, and a little above the highest prices of 
deficient some fourteen or fifteen ounces. the last five months. This narcotic drug brings into 
Syrupus Rhei .—It would be an improvement to con- the Indian Government a larger revenue than to- 
tinue the evaporation of the percolate to fourteen | bacco does to the British exchequer, 
fluid ounces only instead of thirteen fluid ounces, or 
until the specific gravity be P026; and also to add, 
“ The product should weigh two pounds seven ounces, 
and should have the sxDecific gravity P310.’ 
Syrupus Rhamni .—Although this is perhaps the 
least important of the syrups, still, since it has a 
place in the Pharmacopoeia, it is advisable that the 
best and most uniform preparation possible should 
be made. The present formula I fear, on account 
of the various dilutions of buckthorn juice, and 
also from “ five pounds of sugar or a sufficiency ” 
being ordered, and from no weight being given for 
the perfected syrup, but merely a specific gravity 
1'320, is scarcely the best that could be devised. 
I would suggest the following 
CONNECTION BETWEEN CHEMICAL PROPERTIES 
AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION.* 
BY THOMAS R. FRASER, M.D., F.R.S.E., F.R.C.F.E. 
Buckthorn Juice 
(Concluded from p. 387.) 
Among the organic compounds, however, a large 
class of substances may have their constitution modified 
in such a manner that a change to the original or any 
other form is effected only with the greatest difficulty, 
namely, the natural alkaloids. Their constitution is not 
fully known; but it is sufficiently known to prove 
it to be of the same typo as that of ammonia, and 
to show that they resemble that substance in 
containing triatomic nitrogen. Thus ammonia = 
(H 
N \ H; strychnia = N o (C 21 H 22 NC^)"'. Like am- 
( H 
monia, also, they are converted by union w r ith acids into 
salts having a different constitution—a constitution in 
which the nitrogen, in place of being triatomic, be¬ 
comes pentatomic. For instance, in the formation of 
and pimento and digest at a gentle heat for four I hydrochlorate of strychnia, the originally triatomic ni- 
liours and strain. When cold add the spirit; let the trogen takes up chlorine and hydrogen, and becomes 
Ginger 
Pimento 
} 
of each 
Refined Sugar . 
Rectified Spirit 
4 pints or a sufficient 
quantity. 
•J ounce. 
5 pounds. 
0 fluid ounces. 
Evaporate the juice to two pints and a half, or 
until it is of specific gravity 1T00 ; add the ginger 
mixture stand for 14 hours, then decant the clear 
liquor, and in this dissolve the sugar with a gentle P en t a tomic N < II 
(C 21 h 22 N0 2 ) 
111 
heat. The product should weigh seven pounds 
twelve ounces and have a specific gravity 1-330. 
Cl 
, united by three bonds 
to carbon, by one to hydrogen, and by one to chlorine ; 
just as the triatomic nitrogen of ammonia unites itself by 
two additional bonds to chlorine and hydrogen, and 
so becomes pentatomic in hydrochlorate of ammonia 
H 
N 
But, by this change, hydrochlorate of strych- 
IINDIAN OPIUM. 
From the higher price which Indian opium has re¬ 
alized at the public sales in Calcutta, there is likely 
to be a considerable increase on the estimated i • ■ . A A ,, , ,, , , . ., 
revenue to be derived by the Indian Government ■, ? . stal)1 y pentatomic; it 
™ rrvi J , ^ um y ni I easily loses the chlorine and hydrogen which it has 
^ , ie sums iealized at the monthly acquired, and returns to the triatomic state. The action 
sales have been as follows : ' 
April 
May 
June . 
July . 
August 
Rupees. 
5.170.250 
5,186,513 
4,926,325 
5,099,875 
5.196.250 
25,579,213 
Equal to £2,557,921, or an increase of more than 
£'400,000 thus far on the estimated amount in the 
Indian budget. The budget estimate was framed 
as follows;— 
of alkalies, or, in many cases, even of alkaline carbonates, 
is sufficient to effect this, and to set free the alkaloid. 
It is obvious, therefore, that the change of constitution 
effected by the addition of an acid does not permit us to 
discover the corresponding change in physiological 
action. But if, instead of an acid, we make use of such 
a substance as iodide of methyl, we find that, while the 
triatomic nitrogen takes up methyl (C H s ) and iodine, 
and becomes pentatomic (just as in the former case it 
took up hydrogen and chlorine), it does not lose these 
* Abstracted from a Course of Lectures delivered before 
the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, and printed in 
the ‘ British Medical Journal.’ 
