March 8,1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
703 
inner surface of the bark. The liber cells are hollow, 
little thickened, and frequently contain minute 
granules of starch and other granular substances. 
The medullary rays and oblong or sub-cylindrical 
cells associated with the liber are not very interest¬ 
ing. The cells of the medullary rays are nearly 
square, with incomplete parietal adhesion and con¬ 
tain considerable quantities of minute starch gra¬ 
nules, spherical or ovate, doubly refractive, and 
giving a black cross. A large number ot cells asso- 
ciated^witli these square cells, and forming part of 
the medullary rays, contain, each cell singly, splise- 
rapliides imbedded in a semi-granular substance (pro¬ 
bably semi fluid when the bark is fresh) of appa¬ 
rently a saccharine nature, and unless this be 
removed by maceration in water, and subsequently 
alcohol, the polariscope and chemical reactions of 
the crystals will be but feeble. 
In conclusion it may be remarked that the struc¬ 
ture of Canella alba bark is somewhat complex, but 
not difficult of study to a microscopist of moderate 
experience, although there are features, such as the 
nature of the contents of some of the cells, notably 
of the liber cells and medullary rays, that are almost 
or quite beyond the reach of present micro-chemical 
histology. 
Granati Radicis Cortex. — Pomegranate Hoot 
Bark.—The cells of this bark are altogether very 
different from either of the preceding both as regards 
size and shape. The external cells are small, sub- 
globose and some of them porous. The cells of the 
layers beneath, excluding certain ligneous cells, are 
sub-cylindrical, thin-walled and small in cross out¬ 
line. Then* contents are starch granules, very minute 
and spliaerapliides of which each cell contains one> 
imbedded in a substance of winch I am unable to 
determine the nature. These rapliides are minute, 
with feeble optical qualities, and their prismatic 
constituent crystals not clearly discernible as is 
usual in this class of crystalline cell contents. Their 
great number is the first thing one notices in examin¬ 
ing the section, and further study shows that the 
inner layers of cells contain by far the greater num¬ 
ber of them, very few cells in this position being 
without one. The more external cells contain fewer, 
the outermost cells none. The starch granules are 
very minute and most numerous in the middle layers. 
Their polariscope reactions are obscure. The 
ligneous cells are distributed in twos and threes, are 
large, porous, much thickened, and the successive 
layers of thickening deposits very evident without 
the aid of reagents. 
In conclusion it may be remarked that the only 
difficulties in the examination of this bark arise 
from the minuteness of the cells, and their being 
filled with various matters that are difficult to re¬ 
move without altering the general structure. Mace¬ 
ration in very dilute sulphuric acid for a few hours 
appears to be most effectual in preparing sections 
for examination, so far as a general view of the size 
and shape of the cells is concerned. 
THE CHEMICAL RELATION OF PHOSPHORUS TO 
OIL OF TURPENTINE. 
The result of an investigation by Kohler and Schimpf 
into the chemical relation of phosphorus to oil of turpen¬ 
tine, and the action of the latter as an antidote in cases 
of phosphorus poisoning, has been published recently in 
the Chmisches Centralblatt. The authors state that a 
crystalline white solid having an acid reaction, is ob¬ 
tained upon cooling, if f of an ounce of phosphorus be 
gradually added to two pounds of ordinary oil of turpen¬ 
tine containing oxygen, while heated to 40° C. This 
substance is separated from excess of phosphorus by 
crystallization from alcohol. It changes, upon exposure 
to the air, into a resinous substance with the smell of 
pine oil and slightly of phosphoric acid. Placed in a 
stream of hydrogen at 40° C., inflammable phosphoretted 
hydrogen is evolved, and at above 50° C. it undergoes 
decomposition into a resinous mass. The name of tur¬ 
pentine phosphorous acid has been given to this new acid. 
When oil of turpentine is administered as an antidote in 
cases of phosphorus poisoning, it appears to form this 
compound, and as such to be discharged in the urine, 
being found in the alkaline distillate when the urine is 
distilled. The distillate has the property of reducing 
mercuric to mercurous chloride, and also of precipitating 
metallic silver from solutions of silver salts. 
SYNTHESIS OF TARTARIC ACID.* 
BY M. JUNGFLEISCH. 
The synthetic researches of chemists have, during the 
last twenty years, yielded such marvellous results as to 
make it appear possible that the artificial production of 
the principal materials of which living beings are com¬ 
posed would be accomplished within a comparatively 
short time. Meanwhile, however, a physical property, the 
rotatory power, common to a great number of natural com¬ 
pounds, has not hitherto been found in any of the organic 
substances obtained by chemical synthesis. According 
to certain opinions, put forth first by Biot, and shared in 
by many scientific men, substances possessed of rotatory 
powers were considered to be produced solely in living 
organisms and by agencies that science was powerless to 
set in motion. This is the problem which I believe I 
have solved. In fact, taking olefiant gas, a compound 
easily obtained by synthesis, I have transformed it into 
tartaric acid optically inactive ; then I have separated 
the product so obtained into two acids symmetrical be¬ 
tween themselves, clearly characterized by optical and 
crystallographic phenomena. The one possesses a 
dextro-rotatory power ; the other a lsevo-rotatory power: 
the dextro-acid is identical with the natural acid. 
The splendid researches of M. Pasteur have established 
that there exist four varieties of tartaric acid, viz.— 
(1) . Natural tartaric acid, hemihedral, and possessed 
of a power to rotate a beam of polarized light to the 
right. 
(2) . Lsevo-tartaric acid, hemihedral, and possessed of 
a power to rotate to the left. 
(3) . Racemic acid, an optically neutral combination 
of the two active acids, which may both be reproduced 
from it. _ . 
(4) . Inactive tartaric acid, like the preceding, neither 
hemihedric nor possessing rotatory powers, but not de- 
composible into the two active acids. 
In a former series of researches, I studied the condi¬ 
tions under which inactive tartaric acid is transformed 
into racemic acid, and I have demonstrated how this 
transformation can be realized in a regular manner and 
on large quantities of material. I have also shown that 
the racemic acid so obtained may be broken up into 
dextro- and lse vo-tartaric acids conformably with the 
method of Pasteur. 
In 1880 Perkins and Duppa showed thatf succinic acid 
could be transformed into tartaric acid; the acid which 
they obtained was examined by Pasteur and recognized 
by him to be a mixture of racemic and inactive tartaric 
acidsT But the researches of these eminent English 
chemists, although remarkable in a chemical point ot 
* ‘ Comptes Rendus,’ vol. lxxvi., p. 286. 
■j" Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society, vol. xui. p. 
102 . 
J 1 Annales de Chimie et de Physique’ [3] vol. ix. p. 23 i« 
