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THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 15,187(7. 
solution, until it acquires a slight alkaline reaction, 
and then mixed with a solution of O'5 gram neutral 
liydrobromate of quinine, shaking the whole until it 
becomes cold: a copious precipitate is then formed, 
consisting of basic liydrobromate. 
The neutral salt is very soluble in water, soluble 
in almost all proportions in alcohol, and its reaction 
is acid. The basic salt is sensibly soluble in water, 
very soluble in alcohol, and its reaction is alkaline. 
The hydrobromates of cinchonine are prepared in 
a similar manner. The neutral salt corresponds to 
the hydroclilorate; it is anhydrous, very soluble in 
water, and less soluble in alcohol than the corre¬ 
sponding salt of quinine. Its solution has an acid 
reaction. The basic salt is sensibly soluble in water, 
very soluble in alcohol, and its solution has an 
alkaline reaction.— Journ. de Pharmacie ct de Cliimie. 
REPORT ON OPIUM PRODUCTION IN 
WURTEMBERG. 
BY JULIUS JOBST. 
The author states in this report the results of this 
year as follow :— 
Though large quantities of poppies were sown last 
spring, the crop rarely did well in consequence of 
the continued dry weather. This alone put an end 
to any prospect of considerable development in opium 
cultivation for the present year, and the scarcity of 
labourers at the time of gathering was for a time a 
further hindrance. Subsequently, when the influence 
of the war had driven many to this work, the best 
time for collection was past, and the poppies ripened 
too quickly, owing to the great heat. 
On the contrary, the price of the new Asiatic opium 
admitted of the best Wurtemberg opium fetching as 
much as 34s. per pound. At this price the earnings 
of a labourer would amount to 2s. 6d. a day, which 
is good, considering that old men, women and 
children could be employed for the pui-pose. 
The opium of this year is much superior to that 
previously grown. The amount of morphia it contains 
is 12 per cent., even in samples that are somewhat 
moist .—Gewerbeblatt aus Wurtemberg. 
C0L0PH0NINE AND C0L0PH0NIC HYDRATE.* 
BY CHARLES R. C. TICHBORNE, M.R.I.A., F.C.S. 
When we submit to distillation (either with or with¬ 
out water) the natural exudations oi the different pines, 
the first result is the extraction of volatile hydrocarbons, 
.or oils of turpentine. These oils were until very lately 
considered as identical, but recent investigations have 
proved that there is a considerable disparity in the pro¬ 
ducts from different species of the pines. 
If, after the extraction of the volatile oils, the distilla¬ 
tion is pushed further, we get a second series of volatile 
compounds, which, however, differ materially from the 
first, inasmuch as they are decomposition-products re¬ 
sulting from the splitting up of the colophony, or resi¬ 
nous part, into more simple molecules of different iso¬ 
meric modifications. 
All the resin oils obtained by myself gave the result I 
am now about to detail. I, however, believe that the 
discrepancies exhibited by the turpentines are perpe¬ 
tuated through the products obtainable upon the de¬ 
structive distillation of the resins proper to such turpen¬ 
tines. 
My attention was first directed to the substance which 
I have named colophonine from an observation made 
preparatory to investigating the volatile oils procured 
on submitting resin to destructive distillation. 
I took commercial rosin, and after drying for some 
time at a slightly elevated temperature distilled it in an 
iron retort. I got by this means a thick distillate, which 
contained a considerable quantity of undecomposed 
resin. Gaseous products escaped which are said to con¬ 
tain ethylene, tetrylene and marsh gas. The liquid 
products amounted to about 74 per cent, of the resin em¬ 
ployed, and a small coke "was left in the retort. This 
thick oil, on rectification, gave about 5 to 6 per cent, of 
a light yellow but mobile fluid, which is known under 
the names of “resin spirit,” “vive essence,” Harz- 
essenz.”* 
This lighter portion, or “resin spirit,” is supposed to 
consist mainly of the hydrocarbons homologous of the 
series C n H 2 „_ 4 and C n H 2 „_ 6 , and and oxygenated oil 
which has been named colophonone. f It is these light 
oils that yield colophonic hydrate. They act energeti¬ 
cally upon the fluid alloy of potassium and sodium, even 
when free from the last-named substance; therefore it 
is probable that colophonone or other oxygenated oils 
form a large ingredient. 
It is given as a specific characteristic of colophonone, 
that if it is treated with sulphuric or hydrochloric acid a 
green oil separates on the addition of water. This is, 
however, only partially true, for I have found that 
the “resin spirit,”;}; procured in the above experiment, 
or old resin spirit that had been washed, only gave this 
reaction in a slight degree. 
It was therefore evident that the colour-phenomenon 
was due to the presence of some other substance soluble 
in water, and not to a specific property of the colopho¬ 
none. On treating old resin spirit with distilled water 
two or three times, and on evaporating these washings 
at a low temperature, a brown crystalline mass was pro¬ 
cured, which gave the colour-reactions, hitherto attri¬ 
buted to the oil itself, in a most vivid manner. It there¬ 
fore becomes evident that the whole subject of colo¬ 
phonone requires revision. It was probable that the 
substance analysed under that name was a mixture. 
I subsequently obtained specimens of the new sub¬ 
stance in which individual crystals had attained some 
considerable magnitude. 
Some of them were three centimetres long and over 
two grammes in weight. They were of an amber colour, 
from impurities, and were obtained by submitting a 
large volume (10 litres) of the spirit in an imperfectly- 
closed vessel to 12 months’ slow evaporation and oxida¬ 
tion. I have procured as much as 281 grammes of the 
crude crystals from 4-5 litres of resin spirit by washing. 
The following are the characteristics of this com¬ 
pound, which, when purified, is a truly beautiful sub¬ 
stance :— 
Colophonic hydrate is white, perfectly odourless, and 
has a sweetish taste. It is very soluble in water, alco¬ 
hol, ether, chloroform and tetrachloride of carbon, not 
quite so soluble in cold benzole and resin spirit, but 
slightly soluble in cold bisulphide of carbon. 
Colophonic hydrate crystallizes readily from water or 
* Mr. J. Turner, a large distiller of resin, has kindly sent 
me the following notes regarding the statistics of the produc¬ 
tion of these oils on a manufacturing scale :— 
Percentage. 
“Resin spirit” (boiling at 135° C.) . . . 5-3 
Heavy oils.64-6 
Pitch.14-4 
Gaseous products and Ifr O.15-7 
+ Schiel. 
j I shall use the term “resin spirit” throughout this 
paper to designate the oils got on rectifying resin oils. 
* Read before the Royal Irish Tcademy. 
