142 
ON NICOTINE. 
of the workmen, who, falling asleep during the night, allow the 
fire to go down considerably, and then suddenly raise the heat, 
by which chloride of iron is sublimed in combination with sal- 
ammoniac. For several years I have been accustomed to show in 
the lecture room, that a solution of these yellow bands in water 
gives no traces of iron on the addition of ferrocyanide of potassium, 
until a few drops of nitric acid be added, when a copious blue pre- 
cipitate is formed ; and I therefore inferred that this yellow matter 
was a double chloride of iron and ammonium. My opinion has 
been fully confirmed by the experiments of Dr. G. H. Jackson." 
I have formed a double salt by the following formula : 
Take of Peroxide of Iron, 1 ounce troy. 
" Hydrochloric Acid, pure, sp. gr. 1.18, 3 fluid ounces. 
" Carbonate of Ammonia, - - l£ ounces troy. 
Water, ----- 6 fluid ounces. 
Prepare the perchloride of iron as directed for chloride of iron 
and sodium, and dissolve the carbonate of ammonia in the water ; 
then neutralize the excess of acid of the perchloride with the solu- 
tion of carbonate of ammonia, and evaporate at a temperature of 
150° F., and the residue will be a powder resembling the double 
chloride of iron and sodium. It is not more soluble, but forms a 
darker solution, and if exposed to the air till the slight excess of 
acid evaporates, it is not precipitated or changed by ferrocyanide 
of potassium. 
ON NICOTINE. 
[Extracted from a paper read before the National Academy of Medicine.] 
By M. Orfila. 
Pure Nicotine may be characterized as easily as a Poison 
derived from the Mineral Kingdom. — Nicotine, discovered in 
1809 by the illustrious Yauquelin, was studied in 1828 by Messrs. 
Posselt and Reimann, who found it in different species of nicotiana, 
as macrophylla, rustica, and glutinosa. Messrs. Boutron Charlard 
and Henry described some of its properties in 1836. Havana 
