264 
ON QUINIDINE. 
less water than the corresponding salt of the a and quinine. 
Analysis showed 
y quinine . . . 84.78 = 4050.0 . . 84.81 
Sulphuric acid . 10.75 = 500.0 . . 10.47 
Water .... 4.47 = 112.4 . . 4.71 
100.00 4662.5 100.00 
The proportion of water in the corresponding sulphate of a 
quinine, is 14 per cent., or seven equivalents; that of $ quinine, 
12.9 per cent., or six equivalents ; and that of y quinine, 4.70 per 
cent., or one equivalent. 
The y quinine is easily prepared, and of importance for the 
purification of the a quinine, as it crystallizes, and can, therefore, 
be more easily purified. 
It establishes, moreover, the presence of the quinine beyond 
doubt, since it is now quite certain that all three arise from one 
another. For the sake of greater order, the denomination ought 
now to be altered, and a quinine should be called that with one 
atom of water; /3 quinine that with two atoms ; and y quinine that 
with three atoms of water. — London Pharm. Jour. May 1st, from 
Pharm. Central Blatt. 
QUINIDINE. 
By Mr. Robert Howard. 
This alkaloid, which gained a prize in the Great Exhibition, 
has scarcely yet attracted much attention. Some of the cheaper 
barks now largely imported from New Grenada contain so much 
of it that it is, perhaps, as well that it should be more studied. 
The Cinchona cordifolia, from that part of the continent, is par- 
ticularly rich in it. It is, however, contained in larger or smaller 
quantities in the Bolivian and Peruvian barks — the Cinchona 
Calisaya, Boliviano, rufinervis, and especially ovata. 
The sulphate of quinidine, or jg quinine as it is called by some 
(Van Heijningen and others,) is so like the sulphate of quinine, 
that the eye or the taste can with difficulty distinguish them. It 
