82 
VARIETIES. 
gallon amounted to 1,271,417 4s. 4d.; Ireland, 452,468 gallons from malt 
only. 6.404,770 from malt mixed with mimalted grain, 112,308 from sugar 
or molasses with unmalted grain, and 3,787 from sugar; total, 6,973,333 
gallons, yielding at the rate of 25. 8d. per gallon, an amount of duty equal to 
£929,777 14s. Sd.— Pharmaceutical Journal, July 1, 1850. 
Runge's Chrome Ink. — Runge's chrome ink, which consists of the neutral 
chromate of potash, and an extract of logwood ; becomes, according to Stein, 
perfectly permanent, and of a more intense black color, by the addition of a 
few drops of a solution of corrosive sublimate. — Pharmaceutical Journal, 
June 1 , from Pharm. Central Blait, 1850, No. 12. 
Ready Method of preparing Helenine. By W. Delffs. — When the fresh 
root of Inula Helenium, cut in slices, is exhausted with boiling alcohol of 
0.833 spec, grav., and the hot filtered solution is mixed with from 3 to 4 
times its bulk of cold water, a slight turbidness results; and after twenty- 
four hours, dazzling white needles, several inches in length, of pure hele- 
nine, will be found in the liquid. The mother-liquor retains so little hele- 
nine, that it is scarcely worth while evaporating it. The experiment also 
succeeded with the dried root which had been kept for half a year, but the 
produce appeared to be smaller. The root employed for these experiments 
had been collected towards the end of October.' — Chemical Gazette, October 1, 
1850, from PoggendorfPs Annalen, 1850, No. vii. 
On the Detection of Strychnine. By A. W. Brieger. — The reaclion of sub- 
stances containing much oxygen upon strychnine is very distinct with pure 
chromic acid, far more so than with the bichromate of potash, first recom- 
mended for the purpose by Otto. By means of this reaction it is possible to 
detect strychnine when mixed with santonine, brucine, &c. But several 
substances prevent the appearance of the violet color more or less, for in- 
stance pure or acetate of morphine ; quinine renders the color pale rose-red; 
sugar conceals the reaction. — Ibid, from Jahrb. furPrakt. Pharm. xx. p. 87. 
On the Constitution of Styracine. By Dr. A. Strecker. — I recently ad- 
vanced the view, based upon the experiments of M. Toel, that styracine 
is a compound of cinnamic acid with the alcohol ofcinnamic acid (styrone.) All 
the facts related by M. Toel and the analyses of the different products, 
agree well with the formula? proposed by me, with the exception of the 
analyses of styracine, which in part at least accord better with M. Toel's 
formula. To get information on this point, I prepared some styracine, and 
obtained it perfectly pure by repeated crystallization from alcohol and ether. 
It possessed all the properties ascribed to pure styracine by M. Toel. After 
drying over sulphuric acid, it was burnt with chromate of lead, when it 
gave — 
Carbon 81.47 81.37 36 = 216 81.82 
Hydrogen 6.09 G.06 16 16 6.06 
Oxygen . . . . 4 32 12.12 
