450 
Japanese  Belladonna. 
f  Am.  Jonr.  Pharm 
I      Sept.,  1881. 
liquid,  through  further  decomposition  by  their  evaporation  with  the 
hydrochloric  acid.  In  concluding,  attention  is  again  called  to  the  acid- 
like properties  of  colchicein,  although  its  compounds  with  bases  will 
remain  a  subject  for  further  study  and  investigation. 
In  a  note  to  his  essay  the  author  also  reviews  the  recent  investiga- 
tions of  Dannenberg,  Molz  and  Morris  (see  this  journal,  1881,  p.  6), 
and,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  colchicoresin  and  beta-colchicoresin  are 
not  inferior  in  activity  to  colchicin,  into  which  the  latter  has  great 
tendency  to  become  converted,  and  that  the  former  being  insoluble  in 
water  and  cold  diluted  alcohol,  it  is  considered  that  the  best  and  sim- 
plest pharmaceutical  colchicum  j^reparation  would  be  a  tincture, 
obtained  by  digestion  of  the  seeds  with  at  least  90  per  cent,  alcohol, 
and  that  the  acetum,  vinum  and  oxymel  colchici  are  preparations 
which  should  be  entirely  discarded. 
A  preparation  more  to  be  recommended  for  therapeutical  purposes 
than  a  tincture  prepared  with  strong  alcohol  is  considered  by  the 
author  to  be  a  solution  of  pure  colchicin  in  alcohol,  and,  in  the  same 
connection,  attention  is  called  to  the  fact  that  in  forensic  examinations 
it  is  useful  to  extract  the  object  under  examination  with  the  strongest 
alcohol,  after  having  been  previously  treated  according  to  the  ordinary 
method;  in  this  manner  the  poison  would  then,  even  after  having 
become  completely  converted  into  beta-colchicoresin,  be  readily 
detected  by  the  respective  reactions. 
CONTRIBUTION  TO  THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  JAPANESE 
BELLADONNA. 
By  Dk.  a.  Langgaakd.    Tokio  (Japan). 
Abstracted  from  "  Arcliiv  der  Pharmacie,"  Bd.  xv,  pp.  135  to  138,  Feb.,  1881,  bj  Frederick  B.  Power. 
The  subject  of  Japanese  belladonna  has  been  previously  referred  to 
(see  this  journal,  1880,  p.  356  and  p.  456).  According  to  Holmes  it 
is  not  derived  from  an  Atropa,  but  from  the  related  species  Scopolia 
japonica.  Fliickiger  presumed  it  to  contain  atropia,  but  according  to 
an  examination  made  of  it  in  Japan,  it  contains  solania.  The  author 
refers  to  his  previous  communication,  "  On  the  active  constituents  of 
the  root  of  Scopolia  japonica,^^  loc.  cit.,  p.  456,  in  which  mention  is 
made  of  two  alkaloids  extracted  therefrom.  The  one  which  is  present 
in  but  small  amount  in  the  root  is,  in  accordance  with  the  Japanese 
name  of  the  plant,  "  roto,'^  called  rotoina,  and  is  abstracted  from  the 
