86 
VARIETIES. 
Vienna, who finds it to belong to the doubly oblique system. The crystasl 
have a fine diamond lustre and a deeply purple color by reflected, and 
ruby-red by transmitted light. In powder, its color is cinnamon brown. — 
Chem. Gaz.j September 15, 1850. 
Examination of Castor eum. By F. Woehler. — (Ann. der Chem. und 
Pharm., lxvii, 360.) The author had already suggested the existence of 
phenol in this substance, and has been able to verify it by distilling the cas- 
toreum with water, when a small portion of an oily liquid having all the 
reaction of phenol was obtained. The residue of this distillation yielded 
crystals of benzoic acid and salicine, and the mother liquid from the crystals of 
the benzoic acid gave with ferric salts the reactions of salicylic acid. — Silli- 
man's Journal, September, 1850. 
On Testing Opium. By G. Reich. — In testing opium to discover the pro- 
portion of morphine and narcotine which it contains, the author proceeds in 
the following manner: — About 100 grains of powdered opium are triturated 
with one ounce of spirit of wine of 78°, and digested in a glass vessel for 
several hours at a moderate heat, and the liquid filtered whilst hot. The 
digestion is then repeated with half an ounce of the same spirit, and the 
liquid again filtered whilst hot into a beaker-glass, containing a solution of 
carbon ale of ammonia (twenty grains in sixty grains of water.) The liquid 
having been covered with a plate of glass, is to be left undisturbed for 
twenty-four hours, when crystals will have formed on the interior of the 
glass. When examined by the microscope the crystals are found to consist 
of four-sided rectangular small prisms, small pearly scales and needles, and 
four-sided prisms. The crystals, therefore, are a mixture of morphia, nar- 
cotine, and meconate of ammonia. They are to be collected on a filter, 
the meconate of ammonia removed by repeated washing with distilled 
water; the crystals, together with the filter, dried on the funnel and treated 
with absolute ether, by which they are deprived of the narcotine. The 
morphia remains on the filter, and the narcotine is obtained by spontaneous 
evaporation of the etherial solution. By this method the author has dis- 
covered in opium 1.8 per cent of morphia and one per cent of narcotine. — 
Pharmaceutical Journal, July 1, 1850. 
. Congelation of Protoxide of Nitrogen and Alcohol. By M. Despretz. — A 
portion of protoxide of nitrogen in the fluid state being poured into a platina 
capsule placed on a brick, under the receiver of an aii-pump, became, by 
the first few strokes of the piston, covered with a white stratum, and was 
quickly converted into a snow-like mass of white substance. In a similar 
manner alcohol, mixed with protoxide of nitrogen, solid carbonic acid, and 
ether, was solidified, although imperfectly. — Boston Medical and Surgical 
Journal, November 6, 1850, from L 'Union Medicate. 
On Cod-liver Oil in Phthisis. By M. Duclos. — M. Duclos thus sums up 
the results of his experience with this substance. 1. The presence of fever 
