Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.,  1887. 
The  Ash  of  Seeds,  Fruits,  &c. 
27 
different  substance  from  that  obtained  by  dissolving  silver  oxide  in 
ammonia,  or  by  adding  potassium  or  sodium  hydrate  to  any  solution 
of  silver  containing  ammonia.  The  former  may,  as  I  have  already 
noted,  be  heated  even  to  redness  with  impunity,  while  the  solution 
Ag20+4NH4OH,  on  losing  by  exposure  to  the  air  two  molecules  of 
ammonia,  splits  up  with  treacherous  facility,  and  probably  in  the  fol- 
lowing way : — 
Ag20  +  2NH1OH=2AgNH2+3H20 ; 
into  water  and  Berthollet's  fulminating  silver,  the  body  with  the  men- 
tion of  which  I  have  introduced  this  subject,  and  with  which  the  culti- 
vation of  a  closer  acquaintance  is  little  desirable. — Phar.  Jour,  and 
Trans.,  Dec.  18,  1886,  p.  487. 
THE  ASH  OF  SOME  PHAE MACE UTIC ALLY  IMPORTANT 
SEEDS,  FRUITS,  ETC.1 
By  H.  Waenecke. 
As  statements  respecting  the  ash  yielded  by  many  seeds,  fruits  and 
parts  of  fruits,  are  entirely  absent  from  manuals  of  pharmacognosy, 
notwithstanding  that  the  determination  of  the  ash  is  of  great 
importance  in  the  examination  of  a  powder  for  mineral  admixtures, 
the  author  offers  this  paper  as  a  contribution  to  the  history  of  the  subject. 
In  the  determination  of  the  ash  about  3  grams  of  a  selected  air- 
dried  sample  was  rubbed  to  a  coarse  powder  in  an  iron  mortar,  or  in 
some  cases  (strychnos  seeds,  tonka  beans,  etc.),  simply  cut  into  small 
pieces,  and  after  carefully  taking  the  weight,  incinerated  in  a  weighed 
platinum  capsule,  in  the  way  recommended  by  E.  Reichardt.  The  un- 
covered capsule  was  brought  about  2  centimetres  above  the  opening  of 
a  Bunsen  burner,  and  the  flame  allowed  to  play  over  the  dish,  when 
the  gases  evolved  ignited  and  the  mass  was  reduced  in  two  or  three 
minutes  to  a  porous  coal.  The  capsule  was  then  placed  obliquely  upon 
the  triangle  and  the  incineration  continued  gently  so  that  only  the  lower 
part  of  the  capsule  appeared  red,  the  current  of  air  being  increased  by 
placing  the  cover  with  its  concave  side  inward  in  the  opening  of  the 
capsule.  After  one  or  two  hours  the  whole  of  the  carbon  was  burnt 
off.  During  the  operation  stirring  was  avoided,  so  that  the  mass  might 
remain  as  loose  as  possible ;  neither  was  the  flame  increased,  on  account 
^rom  the  Pharmaceutische  Zeitung,  September  8. 
