March 18,1871.3 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
74D 
we see reigning for ages. The cause of all this is simple 
and unique. If the unions between wild species were in 
all senses and indefinitely fruitful, as they are among 
our doves and in our stables, what would happen ? The 
harriers between species, between genera, would be taken 
away. Crossing would take place in all directions; 
everywhere would appear intermediate types, every¬ 
where the actual distinctions would gradually become 
■effaced and disappear. It is impossible to imagine where 
the confusion would stay its course. It would become a 
•chaos of misformed creatures, such as the Babylonians 
dreamt of, and such as Lucretius described. 
The same observations apply to past geological ages 
as well as to the present. All things being alike in 
•other respects, fossil species are as well defined and as 
•distinct as those of the present era. 
Everything leads us to the conclusion that the laws of 
the organic world have not changed since the beginning. 
To admit the contrary is to oppose to all that we know 
concerning the present and the past of our globe, the 
possible, the unknown, or, in other words, hypothesis, 
having for its foundation our very ignorance. 
On this account M. Quatrcfages declines to believe in 
the origin of species by gradual transformation, and, in 
the name of science, feels compelled to combat Darwinism 
as much as the hypothesis of Lamarck. 
GLYCYRRHIZIN.* 
BY JOSEPH M. HIIISH. 
The mode of preparing glycyrrhizin, mentioned in 
fhe last Dispensatory, of precipitating the same from a 
•cold infusion, I found highly impracticable, on account of 
the slight solubility of the same in cold water. Ber¬ 
zelius’s method of preparing it from sulphate of glycyr¬ 
rhizin gave but a dark-coloured product, difficult to 
purify, while Vogel’s method of preparing a plumbate 
of glycyrrhizin, and subsequent decomposition with 
hydric sulphuret, is rather laborious. The best practical 
process appeared to be the preparation from an infusion 
made with boiling water of acetate of glycyrrhizin, which 
upon evaporation to dryness is dissolved in alcohol, 
when the acetic acid is neutralized with soda, the new 
salt crystallizing out, while the glycyrrhizin remains in 
solution. Another method, giving good results, I found 
to be the preparation of an alcoholic extract by percola¬ 
tion, which I heated to the boiling-point, filtered off from 
the product produced, when I evaporated nearly to dry¬ 
ness, redissolved in alcohol, from which solution it re¬ 
mained behind almost pure upon evaporation. 
Experimenting with this product in regard to its re¬ 
lation to masking bitterness, I found one part to cover 
up the bitter taste of four parts of Epsom salts, a slight 
addition of the latter being plainly perceptible, although 
by no means as disagreeable as when tasted alone. .Of 
an alcoholic extract of coffee, an amount representing 
twenty parts of coffee, lost its bitter taste upon the addi¬ 
tion of the glycyrrhizin. A number of other experi¬ 
ments of similar kind were made, but your reporter re¬ 
spectfully expresses his doubts about the mathematical 
reliability of results, arrived at by taste alone, and con¬ 
fines, therefore, his remarks to the modus operandi of the 
glycyrrhizin. 
Taste being an effect upon the nerves of sensation (of 
taste), the change of taste can be produced either by a 
•chemical change of a substance, or by a peculiar local 
affection of the nerves of taste. The first case, as might 
have been anticipated, with Epsom salts, does not occur, 
the glycyrrhizin not affecting the sulphate of magnesia 
in any way. 
* Paper read at the Meeting of the American Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Association in answer to the query, “ What is. the easiest 
and most practicable method of isolating glycyrrhizin ; to 
what extent does it possess the power of masking bitterness; 
and what is its mode of action ?” 
The second supposition then lay near, namely, that 
the nerves were rendered insensible to the bitter taste. 
This might be done by an organic change of nerve 
matter, or by the interposition of a foreign body between 
the nerves and the bitter substance. To ascertain the 
former lay beyond the facility of your reporter, and I 
made, therefore, the best of the last supposition, which 
seems to give a true solution of the problem. When 
glycyrrhizin or liquorice dissolves upon the tongue, the 
latter soon becomes furred, coated, this coat being a 
coagulum of the albumen of the saliva with the glycyr¬ 
rhizin. A few tests convinced me that even a weak 
solution of albumen coagulates readily with glycyrrhizin, 
and I took the artificial coating of the nerves produced 
by the albuminous coagulum of glycyrrhizin to be the 
true cause of its masking bitterness. If this was true, 
other substances, which readily coagulate albumen, 
should produce the same result. 
With this idea I tried a solution of carbolic acid with 
various bitter substances, and in each case the bitterness 
was annihilated if the quantity of carbolic solution was 
sufficient. But while glycyrrhizin and its compounds 
are sweet, this is not the case with carbolic acid, the 
taste of which replaced that of the bitter substance with 
which it was mixed, this taste being in itself not agree¬ 
able. To remedy this evil, carbolate of glycerin was 
tried with marked success. Epsom salts, coffee, ab¬ 
sinthe, etc., lost their bitter taste when mixed with a 
sufficiency of caiholic glycerin.— Proc, Atner. Pharm. 
Assoc., 1870. 
NEW METHOD 0E DISTINGUISHING VEGETABLE 
FIBRES. 
Dr. Isidor Walz gives, in the Manufacturer s Review, 
a summary of M. Vetillard’s method of distinguishing 
the fibres of linen, hemp, cotton, jute, China grass, New 
Zealand flax, which is of such easy execution that we 
print the whole of it. 
If a woven or spun fibre is to be examined, it must 
first be disintegrated into the single fibres, and any 
colour or finish must be removed as completely as pos¬ 
sible. Ver-tical and longitudinal microscopic sections 
are next made. These are rendered transparent by gly¬ 
cerine or chloride of calcium, and treated with tincture 
of iodine, made by simply dissolving iodine, in a solution 
of iodide of potassium. The excess of this tincture is 
removed, a drop of dilute sulphuric acid added, and the 
sections examined by the aid of the microscope. 
Linen Fibre .—Bundles of smaller fibres, with a. fine 
canal in the centre, long, uniformly thick,, and pointed 
at tho ends. Longitudinal section: the fibres are co¬ 
loured blue, the canal yellow. Cross section: regular 
polygons, loosely connected, coloured blue; centres 
yellow. 
Hemp .—Fibres aggravated; each fibre covered with a 
thin skin, coloured yellow. They are thick and less 
uniform, them tho linen fibres. J?he ends ure thick, cind 
of the shape of spatulas, and become blue or greenish- 
blue with iodine. Cross section: irregular polygons, 
firmly connected: rim yellow, the mass blue, the centre 
colourless. . ... 
Cotton .—Longitudinal section: single fibres, spirally 
wound on their own axis, with a central canal and broad 
ends; coloured blue by iodine. The cross sections are 
rounded in the shape of kidneys and colouied blue, with 
yellow spots interspersed. 
China Grass .—Longitudinal section: fibres, separated 
lengthwise, of varying thickness. The interior canal is 
often filled with a yellow granular substance, which is 
coloured brown by iodine. The fibre is turned blue by 
iodine. Cross section : irregular, with re-entrant angles, 
and little cohesion. The fibres are stouter than a 
other fibres, and are turned blue by iodine. 
Jute .—Fibres strongly coherent, the ends undulatmg, 
and difficult to separate. Central canal wide, empty, 
