VARIETIES. 
185 
properties of bitter tonics, and might be useful in dyspepsia, and perhaps 
even in ague. Notwithstanding the faith of the Panama doctors, I am afraid 
there is not a shadow of hope that these seeds will prove an antidote against 
snake poisons; all the reputed antidotes to snake poison having hither- 
to proved unworthy of trust when used under the eye of competent ob- 
servers." 
M. Planchon has the merit of giving a name and assigning a botanical 
station to the plant producing the cedron, and has called it Simaba cedron, of the 
natural family Simarubacce. Those who desire to be more thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the plant, will find a full botanical description, accompanied 
by a well executed wood cut, in the journal above referred to. 
Dr. G. R. B. Horner, U. S. N., in an article on California, published in the 
Medical Examiner for Feb. page 91, refesto the use of cedron in that country 
for intermittents, and states that it is derived from Panama. 
On the Color produced by Tincture of Guaiacum on certain Vegetable Sub- 
stances. — By J. H. Van Der Brock. — Sometime since, Schonbein published 
(Central Blatt, 1849, p. 173,) some experiments concerning the blue color 
which slices of potato acquire on the addition of tincture of guaiacum, and 
mentioned that the substance which becomes blue is more abundant near 
the skin and about the eyes of the potatoes than in any other part. Van der 
Brock has tested a considerable number of vegetable grains, &c, such as 
ripe and unripe French beans, common barley, rye, oats, pearl barley, 
wheat, peas, millet, buck-wheat, nuts, bitter and sweet almonds, rice, chest- 
nuts, alder-wood, oak-wood, &c, and he concludes that it is the albumi- 
nous matter of plants which probably produces this reaction. There are 
other bodies contained in plants which admit of this reaction, but they have 
as yet not been sufficiently recognized ; they appear, however, to be sub- 
stances which are in a state of speedy transformation produced by what is 
called, after Mitscherlich, contact action. 
Amygdalin, legumin, starch and its isomeric substances, and tannin of 
gall-nuts, have no influence upon this coloration. — Pharm Journal, Jan. 1850, 
from Central Blatt, 1860, No. xl. and xli., p. 365. 
Succinic Acidfromthe Residue of Sp. JZtheris Nitrosi By H. Reich. — In 
the acid residue, obtained by the distillation of alcohol with nitric acid, in 
the preparation of sp. setheris nilrosi, Reich found formic acid once only; but 
in several cases (at least in the collected residues preserved from one to four 
years) he found oxalic and malic acids, and always saccharic acid. These 
residues were manufactured into malate of lime, and from this succinic 
acid was prepared by fermentation with decayed cheese. — Ibid from Ibid. 
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