246 
Selected Articles. 
attract humidity. An easy plan is to cover the pot with a 
disk of glass, maintained in its place by a luting. — Journ. de 
Pharm. 
Note. — The committee appointed to report on the above 
memoir, M. M. Planche and Boutron, appear to think that 
the author has not fully established his conclusions. They 
give the original process of Geiger, of which it would appear 
that M. Deschamps was ignorant, and hence, perhaps, failed 
in his endeavour to separate the active principle of conium. 
This process is as follows : " To obtain coneine, fresh conium 
is to be distilled with caustic potash and water, as long as the 
product has any smell. This product is to be saturated with 
sulphuric acid, and evaporated to the consistence of a syrup. 
Absolute alcohol is added till there is no precipitation of sul- 
phate of ammonia. The alcohol is to be distilled, and a very 
concentrated solution of caustic potash added to the residuum, 
and the distillation repeated." They also state that M. Sou- 
beiran, who repeated this process, obtained a substance iden- 
tical with that described by the German chemist. 
ART. L.— ON CAPNOMOR. By Dr. Reichenbach, 
In the preparation of the different substances obtained by 
Dr. Reichenbach from the product of the dry distillation of 
organic bodies, this able chemist had constantly to guard 
against a peculiar oily body, which resisted all direct modes 
of separation. This body altered the purity, 1st, of Eupion, 
rendering its flame smoky ; 2d, of Creosote, whose medical 
properties it greatly deteriorated ; 3d, of Picamar, of which 
it diminished the specific gravity ; and 4th, of Paraffin, the 
solidification of which it prevented. To get rid of it, Dr. 
Reichenbach adopted the following plan : 
In distilling the wood tar, those portions only are to be 
