644        Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy. 
in  the  brewing  trade  as  well  as  for  medicinal  uses,  and  we  may  add 
in  confectionery.  The  largest  consumers,  however,  are  the  United 
States.  Mr.  Finselbach  suggests  that  the  plant,  which  can  be 
grown  from  suckers,  would  be  a  remunerative  crop  in  certain  dis- 
tricts—  The  Pharmaceutical  Journal  of  Australasia,  August  28,  1 897. 
ON  MORRHUOL  AND  THE  ALLEGED  IODINE  AND  THE   BROMINE  CON- 
STITUENTS IN  COD-LIVER  OIL. 
Charles  Gundlich(77^  Journal  of  Pharmacology,  Vol.  4,  pp.  223), 
reports  that  in  experimenting  with  cod-liver  oil  for  the  production  of 
the  so-called  morrhuol,  he  first  tried  concentrating  a  pure  oil  in  a 
vacuum  of  15  millimeters  pressure  at  1000  C,  he  having  surmised 
that  this  substance  might  be  the  concentrated  oil.  The  results 
were  negative. 
A  sample  of  crude  oil,  having  a  specific  gravity  of  0-923,  and 
Hehner  value  95-15  (percentage  of  insoluble  fatty  acids),  was  then 
treated,  after  ascertaining  its  freedom  from  free  acids,  with  80  per 
cent,  alcohol.  The  alcoholic  extract  was  evaporated,  and  the  product 
obtained  had  a  specific  gravity  of  0-900  at  190  C,  and  congealed  at 
4°  C.  In  these  respects  it  corresponded  with  samples  of  purchased 
morrhuol  (one  foreign,  one  domestic),  as  well  as  in  taste,  odor  and 
color.  The  author  is,  therefore,  of  the  opinion  that  the  commercial 
product  is  prepared  in  a  like  manner  from  any  crude  product  sold  as 
cod-liver  oil. 
Tests  for  iodine  and  bromine  showed  that  they  were  neither  pres- 
ent in  the  crude  oil  used  in  the  preceding  experiment  nor  in  the 
purchased  morrhuol. 
The  latter  appeared  to  be  a  mixture  of  various  impure  fatty  oils, 
for,  after  repeated  attempts  at  fractional  distillation,  no  products 
could  be  isolated  having  a  uniform  boiling  point. 
An  examination  of  the  crude  cod-liver  oil  and  the  morrhuol  for 
amine  derivatives  revealed  their  presence  in  each.  The  process  for 
the  separation  of  the  amines  was  applied  to  a  sample  of  oil  from 
which  morrhuol  had  been  extracted  by  treatment  with  alcohol,  and 
the  results  showed  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  alkaloids  had  been 
removed  by  this  treatment.  The  conclusion  is  therefore  reached 
that  morrhuol  contains  a  considerable  quantity  of  amines. 
A  NEW  ALKALOID,  RETAMINE. 
Battandier  and  Malosse  (Jour,  de  Ph.  et  de  Chim.  [6],  6,  241) 
have  separated  from  the  young  branches  and  bark  of  Retama 
