ON  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  DIGITALIN. 
69 
as  to  form  no  sort  of  objection,  while  the  diffusion  of  it  in  the 
water  prevents,  to  some  extent,  the  camphor  from  condensing 
in  desiccation,  and  becoming  very  hard  and  difficult  of  reduc- 
tion to  powder.  The  London  PharmaceuticalJournal,  for  July, 
1860,  has  an  article  on  the  reduction  of  camphor  to  powder,  by 
the  addition  of  cold  water,  pounding  it  in  a  mortar,  and  sift- 
ing. 
I  have  not  been  able  to  arrive  at  any  satisfactory  results  by 
this  method. — -Proe.  American  Pharmaceutical  Association^ 
1860. 
ON  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  DIGITALIN. 
M.  Kosmann  has  recently  published  an  account  of  some  ex- 
periments, undertaken  by  him  with  a  view  of  ascertaining  the 
action  of  certain  reagents,  principally  sulphuric  acid,  on  several 
organic  principles.  The  result  of  his  investigation  has  been  to 
show  that  the  bodies  digitalin,  santonin,  guaicum  and  resin  of 
scammony,  have  the  composition  of  glucosides — a  result  which 
might  have  been  expected  from  analogy,  and  which,  in  at  least 
one  case,  has  been  already  indicated. 
Digitalin  and  the  Products  of  its  Decomposition  -The  author 
having  obtained  pure  digitalin,  first  satisfied  himself,  by  the 
usual  processes,  that  no  nitrogen  entered  into  its  composition. 
He  then  boiled  a  given  weight  of  the  pure  and  anhydrous  digi- 
talin with  diluted  sulphuric  acid  for  an  hour  or  an  hour  and  a 
half.  After  boiling  for  some  time,  a  white  flocculent  precipitate 
formed,  the  liquid  at  the  same  time  acquiring  a  yellow  color. 
Upon  collecting  the  precipitate  upon  a  filter  and  weighing,  it 
vras  found  to  amount  on  an  average  to  47  per  cent,  of  the  ori- 
ginal substance.  The  filtered  liquid  was  saturated  with  car- 
bonate of  lime  or  carbonate  of  baryta,  to  remove  the  sulphuric 
acid,  filtered  and  evaporated  down  to  the  consistence  of  an  ex- 
tract. The  residue  was  found  to  possess  all  the  characters  of 
grape  sugar.  It  reduced  the  potassio-tartrate  of  copper 
and  underwent  fermentation,  furnishing  alcohol  and  carbonic 
acid.  The  weight  of  the  residue,  dried  as  far  as  possible,  aver- 
aged between  57  and  58  per  cent,  of  the  digitalin  employed. 
