AugTiSr"' }         Illicmm  Religiosum,  Constituents.  407 
lodal  is  obtained,  according  to  A.  Bertrand,  on  passing  hydriodic 
acid  into  anhydrous  chloral  or  bronial,  with  the  liberation  of  chlorliy- 
dric  or  bromhydric  acid.  C2HCI3O  +  3HI  yields  C.HIgO  +  SHCl. 
On  dissolving  the  product  in  water  and  treating  with  potassa,  iodoform 
is  obtained. — Ibid.;-  Moniteur  Scieiit.,  u,  p.  493. 
Iodine  and  Arsenic  Sulphides. — On  carefully  heating  equal  mole- 
cules of  arsenic  disulphide,  AS2S2,  and  iodine,  R,.  Schneider  observed 
rapid  liquefaction  to  a  brown-red  liquid,  congealing  to  an  amorphous 
glassy  mass  of  the  same  color,  probably  AsI3.As.S3.  Neither  alcohol, 
carbon  bisulphide  or  chloroform  dissolves  iodine. 
Arsenic  trisulphide  and  iodine,  in  the  proportion  of  As^Sg  +  I^,  melt, 
likewise,  to  a  red-brown  liquid,  which  congeals  to  a  somewhat  crys- 
talline scarlet-red  mass,  probably  2(AsT3.As2S3)-|-3Sl2.  This  is  readily 
soluble  in  hot  carbon  bisulphide,  with  a  yellowish-brown  color. — Ibid.; 
Jour,  praht.  Chem.,  xxiii,  p.  486. 
ILLICIUM  RELIGIOSUM,  Sieb.^ 
Its  Poisonous  Constituent.,  and  its  Essential  and  Fixed  Oils. 
By  J.  F.  Eykman. 
The  Illicium  religiosum,  Sieb.  (Jap.  "Shikimi  no  ki a  plant 
belonging  to  the  family  Wintere?e,  growing  wild  in  Japan,  is  generally 
considered  by  the  Japanese  and  Chinese,  and  indeed  from  the  earliest 
times,  to  be  a  poisonous  plant,  and  many  cases  of  poisoning  have  been 
attributed  to  this  plant,  especially  to  its  fruit.  Last  year,  cases  of  ])oi- 
soning  also  occurred  at  Leeuwarden,  in  the  Netherlands,  through  the 
use  of  commercial  star-anise  in  the  preparation  of  anisa-milk.''  ^ 
According  to  a  report  of  the  commission  which  was  charged  with  the 
investigation  of  the  cause  of  the  j^oisoning,  star-anise  fruit  is  said  to 
have  been  used  in  the  preparation  of  the  beverage  which  corresponded 
in  description  to  the  fruit  of  the  Japanese    Shikimi  no  ki.'' 
The  chemical  investigation  yielded  nothing  of  importance.  True 
star-anise  gave  6*65  per  cent,  and  the  suspected  star-anise  11*9  per 
cent,  of  resin  soluble  in  ether,  and  the  presence  of  an  alkaloid,  both 
in  the  genuine  and  the  suspected  fruit,  was  established  by  the  general 
^Translated  from  the  "  Mittheilungen  der  Deutscben  Gesellschaft  fiir 
Natur-  und  V()lkerkunde  Ostasiens,"  vol.  xxiii  (Yokaliama,  1881). 
^This  beverage  is  ordinarily  prepared  from  Pimpinella  Anisum^  less  fre- 
quently from  star-anise. 
