GLEANINGS  FROM  FOREIGN  JOURNALS. 
31 
was  treated  with  ether,  alcohol  and  caustic  lime  and  gave  3-8 
per  cent,  of  a  brown,  amorphous  mass,  which  again  yielded  a 
precipitate  of  tannate  corresponding  to  1-9  per  cent,  of  atropia. 
The  same  extract,  by  comparing  it  approximately  with  a  solu- 
tion of  the  pure  sulphate,  previously  tested  with  one  of  binio- 
dide  of  potassium,  showed  that  it  ought  to  have  contained  5 
per  cent,  of  atropia.  It  appears,  however,  more  probable  that 
the  quantity  of  the  alkaloid  should  be  assumed  as  2,  or  rather 
3,  per  cent.,  the  precipitation  by  tannin  being  not  perfect.  Of 
an  extract  of  this  strength  the  maximum  dose  of  2  grains  then 
corresponds  to  »16  grain  of  atropia. 
Hyoscyamia,  which  is  described  as  a  crystalline  substance, 
the  author  was  unable  to  obtain  in  any  other  form  than  that  of 
volatile  oily  fluid,  having  a  strong  odor  of  tobacco.  From  a  soft 
extract,  prepared  from  the  fresh  flowering  herb,  which  had 
yielded  2-6  per  cent.,  ether  and  potassa,  extracted  only  0-46  per 
cent,  of  this  oily  base.  An  alcoholic  extract,  made  from  the 
same  herb,  of  which  it  had  produced  only  f  per  cent.,  after 
treatment  with  subacetate  of  lead,  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  cau- 
stic lime  and  ether,  yielded  a  still  more  impure  product.  The 
greater  percentage  of  hyoscyamia  in  the  latter  extract,  which 
should  have  been  3  or  4  times  that  of  the  former,  must  have 
been  destroyed  by  the  process  of  eliminating  it. 
Extract  conii,  which  was  a  yield  of  3-9  per  cent,  from  the 
flowering  herb,  gave  3  per  cent,  of  pure  conia.  It  should  be  no- 
ticed that  the  alcohol  recovered  from  the  evaporation  of  alco- 
holic extracts  contains  perceptible  traces  of  volatile  alkaloid. 
The  Raphides  or  Crystals  in  certain  Vegetable  Drugs. — Prof. 
Berg,  as  well  as  Fluckiger,  some  time  ago  declared  the  crystals 
found  in  abundance  in  South  American  soap  bark  to  be  those 
of  gypsum.  Blekrode  and  Martius  afterwards  stated  that  they 
were  carbonate  of  lime  (arragonite) ;  but  Kindt  lately  showed 
that  they  contained  no  sulphur,  but  were  soluble  in  hydrochlo- 
ric acid,  and  no  doubt  consisted  simply  of  oxalate  of  lime,  a 
fact  which  Fluckiger  now  confirms,  (Schweiz.  Wochenschr.  zeit- 
ung.  JSF.  D.  Apoth.  Verrin.,  March  31,  1863.)  On  examining 
the  crystals  found  in  the  bark  of  guaiac,  which  Guibourt  had 
declared  to  be  benzoic  acid  and  Berg  as  another  occurrence  of 
gypsum,  Fluckiger  discovered  them  to  be  the  ordinary  oxalate 
