GLEANlNaS  FROM  GERMAN  JOURNALS. 
421 
Conchinin  is  the  name  given  by  0.  Hesse  to  a  cinchona  alka- 
loid, which  he  states  has  already  received  the  various  names, 
pitayin,  chinidin,  ^  chinidin,  ^  chinin,  B  chinin,  crystallized 
chinoidin  and  cinchotin.  It  turns  polarized  light  to  the  right, 
like  cinchonia,  is  isomeric  with  quinia,  is  precipitated  from  its 
neutral  solutions  by  iodide  of  potassium,  and  yields  with  chlorine 
and  ammonia  the  same  green  coloration  as  quinia.  The  base 
is  evidently  the  same  which  by  Pasteur  was  named  quinidia. 
Hesse  states  that  at  15°C.  it  dissolves  in  2000  water,  at  10°C. 
in  35,  and  at  20°C.  in  22  p.  ether,  and  at  20°C.  in  26  p.  80  per 
cent,  alcohol ;  the  alkaloid  crystallizes  readily  from  its  solu- 
tions. The  sulphate  has  the  formula  SgHgOgH- 
4H0,  and  dissolves  in  108  p.  water  of  10°C.  The  neutral  hydri- 
odate  requires  1270  p.  water  at  10°C.  for  solution.  Its  soluble 
salts  are  precipitated  by  ferrocyanide  of  potassium  as  a  yellowish 
crystalline  powder,  while,  if  previously  heated,  golden-yellow 
prisms  are  obtained ;  this  behaviour  is  identical  with  that  of  cin- 
chonia, which  Bill  thought  could  be  distinguished  by  this  test. 
From  a  neutral  solution  of  the  four  cinchona  alkaloids,  dilute 
solution  of  Rochelle  salt  precipitates  those  deviating  polarized 
light  to  the  left,  (quinia  and  Pasteur's  cinchonidia  —  chinidin  of 
the  German  chemists),  while  those  deviating  to  the  right  remain 
in  solution  (cinchonia  and  Pasteur's  quinidia  =  Hesse's  con- 
chinin).— (Ann.  d.  Ch.  u.  Pharm.  cxlvi,  357-370.) 
Small  weights. — H.  Beinsch  suggests,  to  weigh  accurately  a 
piece  of  aluminum  wire,  to  draw  a  line  of  precisely  the  same 
length  upon  paper,  divide  it  into  the  requisite  parts  in  the  well- 
known  way  and  cut  the  wire  after  marking  the  divisions  upon  it ; 
each  piece  may  then  be  bent  to  the  shape  of  the  figure  it  repre- 
sents, thus  y  for  5,  &c. — N.  Jahrhuch  f.  Pharm.  1869,  18. 
Tests  for  minute  quantities  of  Hydrocyanic  Acid. — Schoen- 
bein  (Schweiz.  Wochenschr.  f.  Pharm.)  moistens  filtering  paper 
with  fresh  tincture  of  guaiacum,  containing  three  or  four  parts 
resin,  and,  after  drying,  with  a  solution  containing  one-quarter 
per  cent,  of  sulphate  of  copper.  This  paper  is  instantly  ren- 
dered blue  in  the  atmosphere  of  a  20-litre  vessel  containing  one 
drop  of  dilute  hydrocyanic  acid  of  one  per  cent. 
