March 9, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
Mr. Carteiglie’s method for making the oxymel is 
as follows:— 
Take of Ipecacuanha (bruised) . . . 1 oz. 
Acetic Acid.1 oz. 
Distilled Water, a sufficiency. 
Clarified Honey.2 pounds. 
Macerate the ipecacuanha in the acid for twenty-four 
hours, pack in a percolator, and pour distilled water 
gradually over it until ten fluid ounces of percolate 
have been obtained. Add the product to the honey 
and mix. 
These, then, are the fluid preparations of ipeca¬ 
cuanha which I desire to recommend to the notice 
of the Pharmaceutical Society. 
I believe that they are decided improvements 
upon any that have hitherto been devised, and meet 
a want that has been long felt by both medical men 
and pharmacists. The processes recommend them¬ 
selves by their simplicity, the preparations are 
stable and in all respects satisfactory, while the 
expense is only about half that entailed by employ¬ 
ing sherry wine or spirit as ordered in most Conti¬ 
nental pharmacopoeias. 
As to the doses of the acetum and oxymel, I have 
prescribed the former in doses varying from five 
to fifteen minims, and am quite satisfied with the 
effects. I secured an emetic action with half an 
ounce in the case of an adult. The oxymel may be 
employed in doses of from five minims to half a 
drachm, and continued or not according to the effect 
produced. I have elsewhere advised that small 
doses of ipecacuanha are best given frequently for 
the so-called expectorant or relaxant effect. 
Many medical men prescribe the wine with alka¬ 
line remedies, and might hesitate to order an acetum 
ipecac, in such combination. In either case there is 
chemical incompatibility, though, as in the case of 
hyoscyamus and alkalies, practitioners will doubt¬ 
less express themselves as satisfied clinically with 
the result. Again, the wine does not mix well with 
emulsion of almonds, although this is often ordered 
for children. The oxymel, however, will make a 
very pleasant and palatable mixture in combination 
with mistura amygdalae. 
It may be, and probably will be, a difficult matter 
to displace the well-known and reputed ipecacuanha 
wine from the Pharmacopoeia; and, for my part, I 
am not disposed to urge such a course at the present 
time. Were the medical profession to cease to em¬ 
ploy it, the public would continue to demand it as a 
common and domestic remedy. If, however, the two 
preparations I have described, the acetum and the 
oxymel, be added to the Pharmacopoeia, and the 
vinum be retained for the present, the requirements 
of chemistry and modern pharmacy will be satisfied, 
and the physician will be furnished with the best- 
known fluid forms of the drug; while the public will 
find in the shops, as heretofore, their old-fashioned 
remedy unchanged. 
\Tlie discussion upon this paper is printed at p. 733.] 
CINCHONA CALOPTERA, Miq.* 
BY DR. J. E. DE VRY. 
I am happy to be able to give some information in 
reference to the subject of the editor’s note, on p. 084 
* Read at the Evening Meeting of the Pharmaceutical 
Society of Great Britain, March 6, 1872. 
r’nn 
i Zo 
of the Pharmaceutical Journal. When I was in 
Java, there were a few plants amongst the then exist¬ 
ing cinchonas which l3r. Junghuhn supposed to be 
G. succirubra ; I forwarded a few leaves of this 
species to my friend Mr. John Eliot Howard and 
asked his opinion on this point. In his reply of 
November 9th, 1800, he said, “ I doubt whether the 
leaves you sent as G. succirubra are from that plant. 
Will you tell me, when you write, whether the ap¬ 
pearance of the bark is that of red bark?” 
Notwithstanding this doubt, this species was still 
cultivated in Java and reported in the official state¬ 
ments as G. succirubra, till at length the late Dr. 
Miquel described it as a new species to which he 
gave the name of G. caloptera .* It was not until 
1808 that I had the opportunity of investigating a. 
very small sample of young bark of this species. 
This bark was very thin, and had not the least ana¬ 
logy with real red bark. I found only 0'55 per cent, 
of alkaloids in it, consisting chiefly of cinchonine. 
Mr. Moens, who subsequently analysed the bark in 
Java taken from older plants, found a larger amount 
of alkaloids, viz. 3‘43 per cent., consisting of 0'03 of 
quinine and 2‘8 of cinchonine. 
Since Dr. Jungliulin’s death, the real C. succi¬ 
rubra has been introduced into Java from Britishi 
India, and is now succeeding there very well. It 
will now be clear why the mentioned number of 
107,904 plants are.quoted under the head of “ Cin¬ 
chona succirubra and G. caloptera.” 
The Hague , February ‘IQth, 1872. 
THE COMPLEX NATURE OF CATHARTINE. 
BY E. BOURGOIN.f 
In a paper on the purgative principles contained 
in Alexandrian senna, by MM. Bourgoin and Bou- 
cliat, a translation of which appeared in this Journal 
a short time since,J the authors asserted that the 
catliartine of Lassaigne and Feneulle was not a de¬ 
finite principle, but a mixture of several substances ; 
and an intention was expressed to attempt to define 
exactly the nature of this mixture. In a note re¬ 
cently communicated to the French Academy, M. 
Bourgoin states that he has found catliartine to con¬ 
tain at least three distinct substances,—clirysophanic 
acid, a dextrogyrous glucose, and a substance whick 
he proposes to call clirysoplianine. 
1. Ghrysophanic Acid is obtained by agitating the 
catliartine of Lassaigne and Feneulle§ with washed 
ether as long as coloration is produced. The united 
liquors, filtered and evaporated, leave an acid re¬ 
sidue, very slightly soluble in water, soluble in alco¬ 
hol and ether, and giving a magnificent red colour 
with alkalies, which is pure clirysophanic acid. It 
exists in so small quantity in the plant that M. Bour¬ 
goin failed to isolate it; but its presence may easily 
be demonstrated by infusing a few leaves in water* 
and adding a few drops of ammonia, which will 
develope the characteristic red tint. 
2. The Dextrogyrous Glucose. —Catliartine, freed 
by ether from clirysophanic acid, gives, with water* 
a limpid but strongly coloured solution, which fer¬ 
ments under the influence of beer yeast, giving rise 
to carbonic acid and alcohol; reduces freely the 
cupro-potassic solution ; and, when deprived of the 
* ‘ Annales Musei Botanici Xiugduno-Batavi.’ 
f Compte 3 Rendug de l’Academie des Sciences, lxxiii. 1449. 
x See ante , p. 221. § See ante, p. 222. 
