76 
Gleanings  in  Materia  Medica. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I        Feb.,  1887. 
in  pure  sulphuric  acid  with  a  faint  reddish  color  (not  colorless),  while 
the  colorless  solution  of  pseudomorphine  becomes  yellowish,  then  red- 
dish. In  the  presence  of  a  trace  of  ferric  salt,  the  solution  of  mor- 
phine is  reddish,  that  of  pseudomorphine  blue,  turning  deep  violet 
and  finally  brown-green. 
Mixed  with  an  equal  weight  of  cane  sugar,  morphine  yields  with 
sulphuric  acid,  either  pure  or  in  the  presence  of  iron,  a  violet-red  so- 
lution. Under  the  same  condition  pseudomorphine  gives  with  pure 
sulphuric  acid  a  deep  green  solution  becomiug  brown-green  ;  and  in 
the  presence  of  iron  a  beautiful  blue  solution,  becoming  dark  green. 
On  substituting  milk-sugar  or  glucose  for  the  cane-sugar,  pseudomor- 
phine gives  with  pure  sulphuric  acid  a  colorless  solution  turning  slow- 
ly to  greenish  and  bright  blue-green  ;  presence  of  ferric  salt  causes  the 
color  reactions  to  be  more  rapid  and  intense.  These  color  reactions  are 
characteristic  for  pseudomorphine. 
Wistaria  chinensis,  Lin.  A  poisonous  glucoside  has  been  isolated 
from  the  bark  of  this  ornamental  climber  by  Ottow  (Nieuw  Tijdschr., 
1886,  p.  207),  and  has  been  named  wistarin.  It  is  freely  soluble  in 
alcoholic  liquids,  sparingly  soluble  in  ether,  chloroform  and  cold 
water,  is  colored  violet  and  green-brown  by  ferric  chloride,  and 
dissolves  in  alkalies  and  alkali  carbonates  with  a  yellow  color, 
and  in  sulphuric  acid  with  a  yellow  color  changing  to  cherry 
red.  Wistarin  has  a  bitter  and  astringent  taste,  melts  at  204° 
C,  is  not  precipitated  by  tannin,  yields  a  white  precipitate  with  basic 
lead  acetate  and  a  green  one  with  copper  sulphate,  and  on  being  boiled 
with  dilute  sulphuric  acid  is  decomposed  into  sugar,  a  crystalline  resin 
and  a  volatile  oil  having  the  odor  of  menyanthol ;  this  oil  when  treated 
with  warm  potassa  solution  is  converted  into  a  white  compound  of  a 
coumarin-like  odor. 
The  bark  contains  also  a  resin  having  apparently  toxic  properties. 
Spircza  Filipendula,  Lin.,  is  a  perennial  herb  the  tuberous  roots  of 
which  were  formerly  used  in  excessive  secretion  of  mucous  glands,  and 
over  fifty  years  ago  were  recommended  in  hydrophobia.  Recently  a 
Polish  physician,  Dr.  F.  I.  Jagell,  stated  that  he  had  successfully  used 
the  bark  of  this  plant  in  the  form  of  infusion,  in  88  cases  wThere  persons 
had  been  bitten  by  rabid  dogs  or  wolves,  26  of  the  patients  having  al- 
ready exhibited  the  early  symptoms  of  hydrophobia. 
The  root  has  not  been  fully  analyzed,  but  is  known  to  contain  tan- 
nin, sugar  and  starch,  and  in  the  fresh  state  also  a  volatile  oil,  which  is 
