624 
Chelidonium  Ma  jus. 
Am.  Jour.  PliariH. 
Dec,  1881. 
Chinolin  is  not  precipitated  by  tannic  acid  or  ferric  chloride.  Na 
color  reaction  is  produced  with  dry  salt  of  the  alkaloid,  either  with 
concentratrd  nitric  or  sulphuric  acid  (the  latter  alone  or  together  with 
oxidizing  materials). 
Numerous  experiments  upon  healthy  as  well  as  sick  persons  have 
shown  that  chinolin  in  large  doses  ( 1  to  2  grams  daily)  can  be  taken 
without  injury.  This  gives  the  conditions  for  the  internal  administra- 
tion of  an  antsseptic — namely,  the  possibility  of  giving  it  in  gram 
doses  without  injury  to  the  nervous  system  or  to  the  mucous  mem- 
brane Avith  which  it  comes  into  contact — which  conditions  are  alsa 
for  the  most  part  fulfilled  by  quinia  and  salicylic  acid. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  upon  just  the  same  ground  that  carbolic 
acid  is  excluded  from  internal  use,  because — in  consequence  of  it& 
property  of  precipitating  albumen — it  strongly  corrodes  the  mucous 
membrane,  and  experience  has  shown  that  it  strongly  alFects  the  nerv- 
ous system.  Albumen  is  not  precipitated  even  by  a  concentrated 
solution  of  chinolin;  only  a  slight  opalescence  is  produced.  That, 
albumen  is  not  coagulated  by  chinolin  follows  from  the  previous 
statement  that  chinolin  prevents  the  coagulation  of  blood  and  of  milk. 
Chinolin  is  not  found  in  the  urine  after  administration,  and  the 
author  thinks  that  before  it  arrives  there  it  is  probably  oxidized  to 
a  pyridine  carbonate.  Chinolin  is  readily  oxidized  by  treatment  with 
potassium  permanganate  to  pyridine  dicarbonate;  it  is  possible  that 
a  similar  change  takes  place  in  the  body,  and  this  would  be  more 
probable  at  a  fever  temperature  than  in  a  healthy  body. — Phar.  Jour^ 
and  Trans.,  Oct.  15,  1881,  from  JBeriehte,  xiv,  1769. 
Chelidonium  majus,  Lm.— 
Prof.  J.  M.  Maisch,  Dear  Professor :  I  wish  to  call  your  atten- 
tion to  the  local  but  very  great  importance  given  to  Celandine  in  our 
locality.  The  flower  consists  of  four  yellow  petals  and  the  plant 
answers  the  description  in  the  National  Dispensatory.  The  value 
attached  to  it  here  IS  as  a  supposed  cure  for  threatened  phthisis  (the 
people  do  not  put  it  so  vaguely,  however,  they  claim  it  cures).  A 
gentleman,  whose  mother  and  brothers  all  died  of  pulmonary  con- 
sumption, was  taken  as  they  were  at  first ;  but,  by  the  use  of  the  Cel- 
andine, his  cough  ceased  and  all  other  symptoms  indicating  phthisis- 
also.    This  was  ten  years  ago.    Whenever  threatened  with  a  cougk 
