BILL ON WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 
36 
lowing it to'cool, groups of transparent and colourless acicular crystals develope. These* 
crystals are rendered opaque by the addition of water. 
Concentrated hydrochloric acid dissolves ricinine, but the hydrochlorate of the base, 
which is doubtless produced in this reaction, appears to be readily decomposed both by 
evaporation and dilution. A solution of ricinine in hydrochloric acid does not give a 
precipitate with a concentrated aqueous solution of bichloride of platinum, but on 
evaporating a mixture of these bodies well-defined octahedra and modifications of octa- 
hedra having a deep orange colour crystallize out. 
On mixing together cold saturated aqueous solutions of ricinine and perchloride of 
mercury no change is at first observed, but if the mixture be allowed to stand for a few 
minutes a mass of beautiful silky crystals, arranged in radiate tufts, is formed ; which 
is so solid that the vessel in which the experiment is performed may be inverted without 
any fear of its contents falling out. The mercurial compound of ricinine is soluble in 
water and in alcohol, menstrua from which it may he purified by crystallization. 
If ordinary castor oil be shaken up with water, the water decanted and evaporated to 
dryness, a small quantity of resinous residue is left, which, when treated with boiling 
benzol, partly dissolves. If the benzolic solution of this residue be allowed to evaporate 
spontaneously, a small quantity of white crystals are obtained, which, so far as one can 
judge from their physical properties, are ricinine. 
Neither ricinine nor the resinoid body which falls when the alcoholic solution of the 
aqueous extract of the seeds is allowed to cool, is the purgative principle of castor oil or 
of the seeds from which it is expressed, for I administered two grains of each of these 
educts to a rabbit more than a month ago, and the animal has not evinced the slightest 
inconvenience, temporary or otherwise. The true active principles of officinal Euphor- 
biaceae I am still seeking, and the nature of the results which I have already obtained, 
induce me to indulge in the hope that before long I shall be enabled to publish an ac¬ 
count of them. I may be permitted to conclude this imperfect account of ricinine by 
stating that I have obtained a similar if not identical body from croton seeds, and, so far 
as I have yet discovered, differing in several important characters from those described 
as belonging to cascarilline, an alkaloid discovered by Brandes in the bark of Croton 
eleuteria or Croton cascarilla, both plants belonging to the Natural Order Euphorbiacese.— 
The Veterinarian. 
A BILL [AS AMENDED IN COMMITTEE] TO BENDER PERMISSIVE THE 
USE OF THE METRIC SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES IN THIS 
COUNTRY. 
Whereas for the Promotion and Extension of our internal as well as our foreign Trade, 
and for the Advancement of Science, it is expedient to legalize the Use of the Metric 
System of Weights and Measures: Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, 
by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Com¬ 
mons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows: 
1. This Act may be cited as the “Metric Weights and Measures Act, 1864.” 
2. Notwithstanding anything contained in any Act of Parliament to the contrary, no 
Contract or Dealing shall be deemed to be invalid or open to Objection on the,Ground 
that the Weights or Measures expressed or referred to in such Contract or Dealing are 
Weights or Measures of the Metric System. 
3. The Table in the Schedule hereto annexed shall be deemed to set forth, in terms of 
the legal Weights and Measures in force in this Country, the Equivalents of the Weights 
and Measures therein expressed in Terms of the Metric System, and such Table may be 
lawfully used for computing, determining, and expressing, in legal Weights and Measures, 
Weights and Measures of the Metric System. 
SCHEDULE to which this Act refers. 
Schedule of Tables of the Values of the principal Denominations of Measures and 
Weights on the Metric System expressed by the Means of the legalized Denomina¬ 
tions of Measures and Weights in Great Britain and Ireland. 
