118 
Burns  by  Sulphuric  Acid. 
f  Am.  Jour  Pharm. 
\      Mar.,  1881. 
composition  of  alstonidina  and  its  salts  could  not  be  determined  for 
want  of  material. 
Alstonidina  resembles  Oberlin  and  Schlagdenhauffen's  alstoniiij, 
but  is  decidedly  different  therefrom,  for  the  latter  is  colored  by  sul- 
phuric acid  containing  chromic  acid  first  blueish-green,  then  violet^, 
and  finally  purplish-red.  The  method  adopted  by  these  chemists  for 
obtaining  their  alstonin  leads  to  the  supposition  that  it  may  haye  con- 
tained a  certain  amount  of  alstonidina.  That  both  chemists  should 
haye  separated  their  alstonin  by  crystallization  from  ether  so  perfectly 
from  their  alstonicin,  i.  e.,  evidently  the  porphyrina  of  the  author,  that 
the  latter  in  acid  solution  no  longer  showed  a  fluorescence,  does  not 
seem  plausible,  for  eyen  with  the  great  difference  in  solubility  in  ligroin^ 
which  is  shown  by  porphyrina  and  the  crystallizable  portion  of  the 
alkaloids  in  question,  the  former  cannot  be  so  obtained  that  it  no  longer 
shows  a  fluorescence.  If  it  be  also  admitted  that  porphyrina,  as  has 
been  more  fully  described  aboye,  was  not  yet  entirely  free  from  alsto- 
nidina, it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  amount  could  be  merely  a  trace, 
entirely  insufflcient  to  explain  the  blue  fluorescence  shown  by  prophy- 
rina  in  acid  solution. 
The  alkaloids  described  above  do  not  comprise  all  which  are  present 
in  Australian  alstonia  bark,  as  is  shown  from  the  difference  in  the 
crystals  mentioned  aboye;  at  one  time  the  author  obtained  small 
scarlet-red  needles,  which  proved  to  be  the  sulj^hate  of  a  new  alkaloid,, 
but  could  not  be  further  examined  for  want  of  material. 
Burns  by  Sulphuric  Acid. — Mr.  Alanore  relates  the  case  of  a 
serious  accident  which  occurred  during  a  chemical  lecture,  in  which 
two  students  were  seriously  injured  in  the  face  by  the  explosion  of  a 
flask  containing  boiling  sulphuric  acid.  The  remedy  applied  was  a 
soft  paste  of  calcined  magnesia  and  water,  with  which  the  face  was 
covered,  in  layers  two  millimeters  in  thickness.  The  intense  suffering 
which  was  first  experienced  ceased  entirely  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
after  the  application  of  the  remedy,  and,  although  the  magnesia 
requires  to  be  renewed  in  the  course  of  24  hours  in  the  case  of  a  severe 
burn,  the  patients  after  recovery  retain  no  marks  of  the  accident. — 
Bull,  de  Therapeutique. 
