244 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
It was according to the above-mentioned process that the following samples of 
quinine were analysed. The first was taken from a four-ounce bottle from 
Messrs. Howard’s and Sons, Stratford. 
On submitting it to the soda and ether test there was no appearance of cin¬ 
chonine, but beneath the ether was an oily substratum, which by the usual tests 
was proved to be quinidine. 
The quantitative analysis showed this to amount to 2-8 per cent. After the 
separation of the quinidine the soda gave no precipitate, proving the absence of 
cinchonine and cinchonidine. Consequently this was an extremely pure sample 
of sulphate of quinine. 
The next sample tested was quinine from the laboratory of De Lisle and Co., 
Paris, better known as “ Pelletier's quiniue.” This yielded 4T per cent, of 
quinidine, and the soda gave a trace of cinchonine. 
The third sample was from the chemical works of Mr. Jacob IIidle, Lombard 
Road, Battersea. This contained 5*G per cent, of quinidine and - 8 per cent, of 
cinchonine and cinchonidine. 
The unbleached variety of the same maker was, as may be expected, much 
less pure than any of the above. 
The sample examined contained 16’3 per cent, of quinidine and 4-2 per cent, 
of cinchonine and cinchonidine. All these were taken out of bottles unopened 
and sealed by the manufacturer. 
With neither was there any precipitate with nitrate of silver and nitric acid, 
proving the absence of muriate of cinchonine ; neither did strong sulphuric acid 
produce any tinge except the usual pale yellow tint. 
A quinine has lately been introduced by Messrs. Herring and Co., Aldersgate 
Street, under the name of “ semicrystallized quinine,” but as it does not profess 
to be pure sulphate of quinine, but a compound of all the alkaloids of the yellow 
cinchona bark, it ought by no means to be used by the dispenser as a substitute 
for quinine without the sanction of the prescriber. The same remark applies 
to the unbleached variety of Mr. J. Hulle. 
A sample from Germany was also examined and found to be exceedingly im¬ 
pure, but as it was not an original package, and without any name, it was 
thought inexpedient to bring it before the notice of the members of the Phar¬ 
maceutical Conference. It is very gratifying to be able to affirm that sulphate 
of quinine, if purchased in bottles or sealed packets, as seat out by the makers, 
or obtained through our well-known wholesale houses, is commercially pure and 
quite fit for medicinal use. 
It must be the chemist’s own fault if he is imposed upon and not supplied 
with an article of sufficient purity. 
Bristol. 
ON COMMERCIAL PODOPJIYLLIN. 
BY MR. JAMES SPEARING. 
(Read at the Bath Meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Conference, Sept. 1861.) 
Podophyllin is a resinous principle existing in the rhizome of the Podophyllum 
peltatum (the American mandrake or May-apple),a creeping perennial, growing 
wild in the States of North America, and belonging to the Natural Order 
Banunciilacece. 
It occurs in commerce in the state of powder, varying in colour from light- 
yellow to dark-brown, according to the degree of heat employed in the prepara¬ 
tion. In taste it is nauseously bitter and acrid, and it possesses a peculiar nar¬ 
cotic odour. Three processes for its production have been published, viz.:—• 
