GLEANINGS  FROM  FRENCH  JOURNALS. 
335 
adulteration.  In  two  successive  years  he  tried  first  the  white 
poppy,  and  then  the  purple  variety.  The  seeds  of  the  white 
poppy  were  sown  in  a  piece  of  ground  well  manured,  in  December, 
1862 ;  in  April,  1863,  when  the  capsules  were  near  maturity, 
they  were  treated  by  incision  in  the  usual  mode,  and  the  juice 
collected  and  inspissated  to  the  ordinary  degree.  This  opium 
yielded  10  per  cent,  of  morphia,  well  characterized  by  usual 
tests.  The  second  year's  product  of  white  poppy  afforded  10*40 
per  cent,  of  morphia  ;  and  the  opium  from  the  purple  poppy 
yielded  12*20  per  cent.,  in  great  purity.  M.  Gastinel  is  there- 
fore of  the  opinion  that  this  branch  of  agricultural  production  in 
Egypt  could  be  ameliorated  so  as  to  produce  opium  equal  to  that 
of  Smyrna,  and  recommends  that  some  influence  be  used  to  bring 
about  this  important  change. — Jour,  de  Pharm.,  Juin,  1865. 
On  the  poison  of  mushrooms. — MM.  Sicard  and  Schoras,  (Jour, 
de  Pharm.,  Juin,  1865,)  in  a  memoir  on  this  subject,  have  arrived 
at  the  following  conclusions  : 
1st.  That  the  poisonous  principle  that  exists  in  many  species 
of  mushrooms  ought  to  be  regarded  as  an  alkaloid,  as  it  unites 
with  acids  and  forms  salts. 
2d.  This  salt,  obtained  by  the  process  described  in  their  pa- 
per, is  extremely  poisonous.  The  employment  of  an  indefinitely 
small  quantity,  in  the  authors'  experience,  was  always  mortal  to 
frogs.  A  small  quantity  also  was  sufficient  to  kill  a  dog ;  and 
it  is  remarkable  that  the  effects  exercised  upon  the  animal  or* 
ganisra  by  this  substance  are  the  same  as  those  observed  in  latter 
times  from  eurarin. 
On  the  ergot  of  the  "diss."  By  M.  Lallemant. — The  diss  of 
the  Arabs,  which  bears  this  new  ergot,  is  Ampelodesmos  tenax 
of  Linck.  This  ergot  was  first  found  in  1842,  at  Calle,  in  Al- 
geria, by  M.  Durian,  of  Maisonneuve,  member  of  the  Scientific 
Commission  to  Algeria ;  but  it  was  not  until  1860  that  M.  Lal- 
lemant, to  whom  M.  Durando  had  made  it  known,  studied 
this  mushroom.  The  ergot  of  the  diss  is  from  3  to  9  millimeters 
(I  to  J  of  an  inch,)  long,  and  2  to  2J  milimeters  thick.  It  is 
nearly  quadrangular,  a  little  flattened,  rarely  cylindrical,  blunt 
at  one  end  and  sharp  at  the  other,  having  nearly  always  a  ridge 
