136 
Kernels  Quinine  Test. 
A.m.  Jour.  Pharm. 
March,  1887. 
Mean  percentage  of  the  two  determinations,  33*58  per  cent,  lead, 
indicating  that  the  acid  has  a  high  molecular  weight. 
I  would  suggest  for  this  substance,  provisionally,  the  name  glyco- 
suric  acid. 
Medical  Chemical  Laboratory,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
—Med.  News,  Jan.  8,  1887,  p.  35. 
KERNEL'S  QUININE  TEST, 
With  special  reference  to  the  form  in  which  it  is  applied  in  the  French  Codex. 
By  E.  Jungfleisch. 
The  recent  discussions  on  the  purity  of  quinine  sulphate  of  com- 
merce have  induced  me  to  lay  before  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of 
Paris  sundry  observations  that  I  have  already  mentioned  in  a  cursory 
manner  in  a  report  read  to  the  Academy  of  Medicine.  The  point  to 
which  I  shall  refer  especially  is  the  test  prescribed  by  the  official  phar- 
macopoeia as  a  slightly  modified  application  of  the  principle  involved 
in  Kerner's  test.  As  it  stands  in  the  Codex  of  1884  it  certainly 
leaves  much  to  be  desired,  but  it  does  not  merit  all  the  censure  that 
has  been  bestowed  upon  it.  Though  a  delicate  test,  and  in  some  re- 
spects even  too  delicate,  it  is  nevertheless  susceptible  of  being  made 
use  of  by  every  pharmacist.  It  has,  moreover,  a  characteristic  which 
I  would  like  to  believe  is  ephemeral,  but  which  may  for  the  time  be 
allowed  to  cover  all  its  defects :  among  the  tests  which  admit  of  the 
detection  of  the  alkaloids  most  usually  mixed  with  quinine  sulphate  it 
is  still  the  least  imperfect,  the  most  simple,  and  the  most  expeditious. 
Of  all  the  criticisms  which  have  been  passed  on  this  test  the  most 
telling  is  that  relating  to  the  preparation  of  the  saturated  solution  of 
quinine  sulphate  at  15°C,  charged  also  with  the  more  soluble  salts  of 
alkaloids  other  than  quinine. 
The  Codex  directs  that  the  quinine  sulphate  to  be  assayed  shall  be 
heated  with  water,  but  it  does  not  specify  the  temperature.  This  crit- 
icism is  well  founded  ;  it  points  out  an  omission  that  needs  to  be  made 
good,  and  for  that  reason  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Paris  has  un- 
der consideration  the  provisional  fixing,  by  a  kind  of  convention,  of  a 
temperature  at  which  the  solution  should  be  made.  It  may  be  useful 
to  remark,  however,  that  the  decision  to  take  this  step  would  depend 
chiefly  upon  the  demands  to  be  made  as  to  the  purity  of  the  official 
salt,  but  that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  fixing  of  that  temperature  would 
not  give  the  process  all  the  precision  which  some  persons  appear  to 
hope.    This  is  a  point  that  deserves  to  be  investigated. 
