'February 3,1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
G29 
100 trees to the acre (allowing for thinning-out). The 
following notes for comparison may he of interest:— 
Grains. 
1 oz. of seed of Finns Pinaster . . . contains 750 
.1 
?) 
77 
,, Pinea .... 
37 
38 
.1 
77 
77 
,, halepensis 
73 
910 
1 
77 
77 
„ alba .... 
77 
10,080 
1 
77 
77 
Cupressus sempervirens 
37 
4970 
1 
77 
77 
Fraxinus Omits 
33 
316 
1 
77 
77 
Pel a la alba .... 
37 
34,500 
1 
77 
73 
Acer Pseudo-Platan us , 
37 
183 
It seems marvellous that trees of such colossal dimen- 
> sions, counting among the most gigantic of the globe, 
should arise from a seed grain so extremely minute. 
The exportation of Eucalyptus seeds has already as¬ 
sumed some magnitude. The monthly mails convey oc¬ 
casionally quantities to the value of over £100; the 
total export during the last twelve years must have 
.reached several, or perhaps many, thousand pounds 
sterling. For the initiation of this new resource, through 
his extensive correspondence abroad, Dr. Mueller can 
lay much claim; and he believes that almost any quan¬ 
tity of Eucalyptus seed could be sold in the markets of 
London, Paris, Calcutta, San Francisco, Duenos Ayres, 
Valparaiso, and elsewhere, as it will be long before a 
.sufficient local supply can be secured abroad from culti¬ 
vated trees. 
Monsieur Prosper Ramel, of Paris, stands foremost 
.among those who promoted Eucalyptus culture in South 
Europe. 
THE ACTION OF QUININE ON THE BLOOD. 
The nature of the influence exerted upon blood by 
•quinine has recently been the subject of a fresh investi¬ 
gation by Schulte.* Its extraordinary power of stopp¬ 
ing fermentation and putrefaction by destroying low 
■organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, has been before 
pointed out. It is supposed to diminish the formation 
■of pus in inflammation, by arresting the motions and 
preventing the exit from the blood-vessels of the white 
Flood corpuscles, the accumulation of which, accord¬ 
ing to Conheim, constitutes pus. Ity depriving the red 
blood-corpuscles of the power to produce ozone, it 
diminishes the change of tissue in the body, and thereby 
lessens the production of heat. Ranke and Iverner have 
.shown the waste of tissue is reduced when large doses of 
.quinine are administered, as indicated in the smaller 
proportion of uric acid and urea excreted. 
With the object of ascertaining whether this effect 
is referable to the direct influence of quinine or oxi¬ 
dation in the blood or to its indirect influence through 
the nervous system, Schulte employed a method based 
upon the changes occurring in the alkalinity of the- 
blood, observed by Zuntz, who had noticed that a con¬ 
siderable formation of acid takes place in freshly-drawn- 
blood, and continues in a less degree till putrefaction 
•commences. The amount of acid formed xvas estimated 
from the diminished alkalinity of the blood, as compara¬ 
tively shown by the quantity of dilute phosphoric acid 
required for exact saturation. A sufficient quantity of 
chloride of sodium was added to the phosphoric acid to 
prevent the blood corpuscles from being dissolved and 
interfering with the reaction by their colouring matter. 
•The point of saturation was fixed at the transient red- 
‘•doning of carefully prepared test-paper by the carbonic 
acid. Schulte has thus been enabled to confirm the 
experiments of Kuntz and Scharrenbroich, showing that 
quinine and berberino lessen the production of acid, and 
that quinine can stop it both before and after coagula¬ 
tion ; that sodium nitropicrate has an action similar to, 
and nearly as powerful as, quinine, while the action of 
cinchonine is much less energetic. Harley has shown 
that while quinine lessens oxidation in blood, some sub¬ 
stances, such as snake poisons, increase it. Binz found 
that when putrid fluids were injected into the circula¬ 
tion of an animal, the temperature rose; but that this 
increase of temperature could be more or less prevented 
by the addition of quinine to the putrid liquid, or the 
simultaneous injection of the quinine. 
V ith respect to the influences of quinine on the change 
of" tissue, Schulte gives the result of some careful expe¬ 
riments made by Zuntz, who found that after taking three 
0-6 gram doses of hydrochlorate of quinine for two 
days the amount of urine he excreted was increased by 
one-third, and then decreased as much, the specific Gra¬ 
vity falling from 1018 to 1012; the urea also showed a 
mayked decrease. 
SQUILL. 
BY R. IIOTIIER. 
_ The body called scillitin is the supposed active prin¬ 
ciple .of squill; it possesses an alkaloidal character and 
combines with acids. In the native state it is soluble in 
alcohol and water ; but the prodigious quantity of gum 
contained in the root and enveloping the principle 
renders strong alcohol inadmissible as a menstruum; 
water or weak alcohol is, therefore, the only available 
means by which the activity of the root can be perfectly 
exhausted. This menstruum dissolves the gum and with 
it the alkaloid. Hence any menstruum which does not 
completely dissolve the gum fails to extract the virtue of 
the root. The excessively large proportion of gum has 
always been an obstacle in the way of a concentrated 
preparation of squill, as also in the weaker aqueous pre¬ 
parations by reason of its fermentable quality. How¬ 
ever, the acidulated preparations, as the vinegar and 
syrup of squill, are perfectly stable. If squill be mace¬ 
rated with water a few days, especially in a warm locality 
or during the summer weather, the infusion becomes 
sour. Gum, under the combined action of diluted acids 
and prolonged heat, is converted into glucose. When 
the sour infusion is evaporated, the acid converts the 
gum more or less completely into glucose, according to 
the duration of the action. Now if alcohol be added to 
the concentrated syrupy residue, which during the pro¬ 
cess has acquired a dark brown colour and sweet taste, 
very little if any gum will be precipitated whilst the 
sugar dissolves. A precisely similar result is obtained 
by the introduction of acetic or sulphuric acid in the 
beginning. An alcoholic menstruum, yet containing 
sufficient water to dissolve the gum, readily yields inva¬ 
riably a light-coloured residue, consisting of gum free 
from glucose, since the presence of alcohol has prevented 
the formation of acidity in the dilute infusion. This re¬ 
sidue, when treated with strong alcohol, is converted into 
a doughy magma, of an utterly unmanageable nature. 
Therefore, to produce a concentrated preparation of 
squill as fluid extract, for instance, it becomes indis¬ 
pensably necessary to convert the greater part of the 
gum into glucose, in order to admit the presence of suf¬ 
ficient alcohol in the concentrated liquid to preserve it. 
The supposition would now seem valid, that the volatile 
acetic acid, above all others, would meet the indications. 
But this is not realized in practice ; the requisite heat to 
expel all the acid remaining in the concentrated residue 
is destructive to the product. Sulphuric acid is more 
adaptable to the case, as this can bo easily and com¬ 
pletely removed with calcium carbonate. With sul¬ 
phuric acid the concentration must not be carried so far 
as to cause injury through the instrumentality of the 
acid itself, as this would char the syrupy residue were it 
evaporated to the same extent as the acetic solution; it 
is, therefore, neutralized before even a very decided 
brown coloration has been imparted to the dilute liquor. 
The generated calcium sulphate, together with the ex¬ 
cess of calcium carbonate, is removed by filtration, the 
filtrate carefully evaporated to the necessary limit, and 
* Neues Eepertorium fur Pliarraacie, xx. 539. 
