Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.,  1887. 
}      Conversion  of  Starch  into  Glucose.  31 
the  height  of  an  attack  gave  relief  in  an  hour.  A  larger  dose  than 
3  or  4  grains,  should  not,  as  a  rule,  be  given ;  7 — 8  grains  is  apt  to 
cause  cramp,  nausea,  and  a  sensation  of  discomfort. 
Dr.  Chabot,  a  pupil  of  Dujardin-Beaumetz,  records  other  cases  of 
the  successful  treatment  of  migraine  by  ethoxy caffeine.  In  a  man,  aged 
52,  with  a  very  painful  zona,  15  grains  of  ethoxycaffeine  taken  in  five 
doses  at  intervals  of  half-an-hour,  procured  sleep,  which  morphine  in- 
jections had  failed  to  induce.  A  nervous  and  anaemic  woman,  suffer- 
ing from  almost  constant  cephalagia  and  insomnia,  found  7  J  grains, 
given  in  five  doses,  to  cause  sleep.  On  previous  nights  opium  had 
produced  but  little  rest.  In  this  case  some  nausea  and  vomiting  fol- 
lowed the  use  of  the  drug.  Two  other  successful  cases  are  also  re- 
corded, and  it  seems  possible  that  we  have  in  ethoxycaffeine  a  power- 
ful agent  for  cutting  short  attacks  of  migraine. — Med.  Chronicle, 
November  1886,  p.  138. 
NOTE   UPON  THE  CONVERSION  OF  STARCH  INTO 
GLUCOSE  BY  MEANS  OF  HYDROCHLORIC  ACID. 
By  Sidney  Haevey,  F.C.S. 
Read  at  Meeting  of  Public  Analysts,  November  10th,  18S6. 
A  paper  on  the  analysis  of  pepper,  by  Mr.  Heisch,  read  at  the  Maid- 
stone meeting,  and  printed  in  the  October  number  of  the  Analyst,  in- 
cludes a  process  for  starch  estimation  by  means  of  hydrochloric  acid  and 
the  polarimeter,  and  as  a  great  number  of  methods  are  recommended  in 
various  works  for  this  purpose,  and  the  above  appeared  to  be  definite, 
simple,  and  easy  of  execution,  I  was  anxious,  at  the  earliest  opportunity 
to  verify  the  results,  and  with  that  object  I  have,  during  the  last  six 
weeks,  made  a  large  number  of  experiments. 
It  must  be  understood  that  I  confined  myself  exclusively  to  the  ac- 
tion of  solution  of  "  HC1 "  upon  the  purest  starches  I  could  obtain,  and 
I  started  with  the  following  assumptions,  viz.  : — 
(1)  That  incomplete  conversion  into  dextrose  by  boiling 
with  "  HC1 "  would  be  shown  by  the  polarimeter  yielding  exces- 
sively high  results  (when  calculated  as  dextrose)  as  compared  with 
the  estimation  by  means  of  "  copper,"  due,  of  course,  to  the  high 
rotating  powers  of  the  intermediate  principles  formed. 
