MATEEIA MEDICA, AND THERAPEUTICS. 465 
given internally. The repeated use of internal doses often produces from one 
to two stools, sometimes even diarrhoea. On the other hand, it appears to re¬ 
tard the appearance of the menses. M. Eulenburg concludes, that, for sedative 
and hypnotic effects, narceine is preferable to every other substance. Besides 
its employment in some essentially neuralgic affections, its use is indicated in 
all cases where pain is a prominent symptom, as in articular affections, phlegmons, 
ocular lesions (iritis, keratitis, etc.), orchitis, blennorrhagic epididymitis, 
cystitis, cirrhosis of the liver, and in wounds, or after painful operations. In 
all these cases, narceine, when employed either internally or externally in the 
doses before mentioned, rapidly lessens the pain, and often produces a sleep of 
four, five, or even nine hours,—sleep which is soft, tranquil, uninterrupted, and 
followed by a quiet awaking. These doses never give rise to any derangements 
or any poisonous effects. Although, by the use of morphia, in numerous cases 
we obtain the same effects, it often fails; many diseases (especially among 
women) present, in fact, a kind of idiosyncrasy which renders the employment 
of morphia impossible ; thus, by its internal use vomiting is produced, or else 
the medicine causes, instead of a refreshing sleep, a state of great excitement, 
with distressing dreams, delirium, and convulsions; while, in some other 
diseases, morphia, without appreciable cause, produces only a very slight effect, 
or one of very short duration. The hypodermic employment of morphia renders 
it more active and more trustworthy, but it increases in a like degree all the 
inconveniences, and often give rise to cephalalgia, faintings, vomitings, or pro¬ 
found collapse; -often the sleep is very prolonged (according to Semeleder, 
fifty-four hours) ; and sometimes the effects of morphia are prolonged even for 
some days after the awaking. 
Narceine, as an anodyne and narcotic, may be always employed in place of 
morphia, and is in every respect equal to it in value, and even in a great many 
cases is to be preferred to it. 
M. Eulenburg has not as yet had many opportunities of employing narceine 
in hemicrania, supra-orbital, trifacial, and crural neuralgias, but every time it 
was tried it produced a rapid cure. In hemicrania ^th of a grain taken at the 
commencement of the attack, produced a sleep of several hours, followed by an 
awaking in perfect health. 
On Coniferine, a Glucoside contained in the Cambium of the Coniferae. 
BY M. W. KUBEL. 
This substance, analogous to Salicine, was discovered by M. Hartig in the 
“ cambium ’’ of several coniferous trees, Abies excelsa^ Abies pectinata, Pinus 
Strobus^ P. Cembra, Larix Europsea; it probably exists also in other species. From 
its origin the name of Coniferine was given to it by M. Hartig, who left the 
chemical study of it to the author. 
The “ cambium ” is collected by scraping the surface of the wood recently 
deprived of its bark, and pressing the mass thus obtained ; the thick juice is 
boiled to coagulate the albuminous matters it contains, which coagulum encloses 
the cells, the amylaceous matter, etc. ; the filtered liquid is then clear, of a 
sweetish bitter taste; by evaporation to one-fifth of its volume, it deposits a 
large quantity of Coniferine in acicular crystals. The syrupy liquor, which 
accompanies them, possesses a very sweet taste, and contains a sugar closely 
allied to cane sugar. The crystals of Coniferine are re-dissolved in water, de¬ 
colorized by animal charcoal, and finally crystallized from weak alcohol. 
Pure Coniferine forms slender needles of a silky lustre, containing water of 
crystallization, which is lost at 100° C.; they are efflorescent. It melts at 
185° C.; at a higher temperature it turns brown, and ultimately carbonizes, 
evolving an odour of burnt sugar. Its composition corresponds to the formula, 
1^32 ^12? 3 HgB. 
