160 
MISCELLANY. 
whose action is very prompt and certain. I send you my formula, in 
order that you may insert it in the Journal de Chimie Medicate, if you 
think it useful to our brethren. 
Purified Burgundy pitch 60 parts. 
Purified resin of elemi - - - 60 u 
Oil of cantharides 60 " 
Yellow wax 125 " 
Cantharides, in fine powder - - 125 " 
Sulphuric ether - 125 " 
Camphor, in fine powder - - - 20 " 
1 place the finely powdered cantharides in a vessel ; I add the ether, cork, 
and leave in contact for eight days. I then melt, over a gentle fire, the 
Burgundy pitch, the wax and the resin of elemi, with the oil ; I add the 
cantharides, and keep the mixture in fusion for at least two hours, taking 
care to stir occasionally : finally, I mix the camphor in very fine powder. 
1 employ for making my plaster cloth waxed on one side only, the plas- 
ter adhering to it better than when the surface on which it is spread is 
smooth. By following,this formula, every pharmaceutist may be freed 
from the necessity of having recourse to another to procure a convenient 
plaster, and which may be made as easily as any other plaster. — Ibid 
from Journ. de Chim. Med. 
On Solanine. By Dr. Hermann Baumann. — M. Baumann undertook 
a series of long and interesting experiments on solanine, and the results 
which he has obtained, as well as those already published by other ob- 
servers, have led him to the following conclusions : — 
1. Solanine is found in the potato. 
2. It exists in the stalks and leaves of the°potato, as well as in that 
of most plants of ihe family Solanacxe. 
3. It is met with in greater quantity in the germs, in smaller quan- 
tity in the stalks and leaves, and the tubercles contain- the least of all. 
4. By boiling potatoes in water, the solanine is at least partially 
eliminated. 
5. Wakenroder's method appears to be the best for the extraction of 
solanine. 
6. Solanine forms with the acid salts which are partly crystallisable, 
and partly amorphous; many of them have a great tendency to be con- 
verted, by the contact of water, into acid and basic salts: this effect es- 
pecially takes place with the amorphous salts. 
7. Solanine, as well in substance as in the solid state, acts, even in 
small doses, in a very energetic manner on the animal organism; but, if 
it is rejected by vomiting, it does not leave any bad consequences. 
8. It should not be ranked among the alkaloids, which act in a lethal 
manner, although in certain circumstances it may be so. — Ibid from Ibid, 
