VARIETIES. 
83 
The slight loss in carbon was to be expected in the combustion of a sub- 
stance so rich in carbon, unless oxygen were employed ; the principle object 
however was an accurate determination of the quantity of hydrogen, which 
according to the formula C 30 H t4 O 3 should amount to 6.42 per cent. I think 
therefore that the formula C 36 H 16 O 4 for styracine may be considered as 
established. — Chemical Gazette, August 15, 1850, from Liebig's Annalen, 
April, 1850. 
Note on Scillitine. By L. F. Bley. — The author has obtained scillitine in 
a crystalline state, according to Lebourdais's process, by treating the aqueous 
extract of squills with animal charcoal. The author treated the extract of 
16 oz. of squills with 12 oz. of purified animal charcoal, without any appli- 
cation of heat; the solution lost entirely its bittter taste. The dry charcoal 
was now exhausted with hot alcohol, and from this solution a small quantity 
of scillitine was obtained by spontaneous evaporation in longflexible needles. 
The temperature at which the solution of the scillitine, from which half 
the alcohol had been removed by distillation, was evaporated, did not ex- 
ceed 77° F. At a higher temperature it was obtained at first in oily drops, 
which congealed to a wax-like mass, and could not be subsequently crys- 
tallized. It must consequently have experienced some alteration, for the 
solution of the crystalline scillitine is neutral, and renders water turbid when 
added to it in drops, whilst that of the non-crystalline is acid, and does not 
render the water turbid. — Chemical Gazette, July 15, 1850, from Archiv. der 
Pharm., lxi. p. 141. 
On the Presence of Iodide of Cyanogen in Commercial Iodine. By T. Klo- 
bach. — The occurrence of iodide of cyanogen in commercial iodine had 
been previously noticed by F. Meyer. The author likewise observed crys- 
tals of this compound in the first crop on the sublimation of 80 lbs. of iodine. 
It was distilled with mercury to remove the free iodine, when 12 oz. of 
iodide of cyanogen, in beautiful crystals, were obtained. — Chemical Gazette, 
April 15, 1 850, from Archiv. der Pharm., Ix. p. 34. 
The Salts of Morphia. — M. Mialhe, of Paris, is of opinion that opium, 
either in the shape of extract or tincture, ought to be entirely discarded from 
practice, as the proportion of active principles in this drug is extremely un- 
certain, both from natural causes, and through adulterations. He has found 
that in the various kinds of opium of commerce, morphia varies from seven 
grains and a half to eight scruples per three ounces and a half; or in other 
words, from one-half to ten per cent. In adulterated specimens — namely 
in a substance that merely imitated opium — he has found only six parts of 
morphia in 5000. . M. Mialhe infers that morphia alone should be used in 
medicine, and that this principle should drive away opium, as quinine has 
replaced bark — Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., November 6, 1850,/rom London 
Lancet. 
