ON  DAPHINE. 
325 
would  be  entirely  ruined.  This  procedure  is  called  seca^  the 
box  containing  the  fresh  leaves  gerga^  and  the  collectors  palha- 
doras.  The  leaves  are  afterwards  packed  in  bags  of  1  arroba, 
(=32  lb.)  and  sent  to  the  cities,  among  which  Cusco  receives 
the  largest  cargoes;  from  here  all  the  departments  of  Peru  and 
Bolivia  are  supplied.  But  a  few  years  ago,  coca  was  cultivated 
scarcely  outside  of  Valles  de  St.  Anna  ;  now  there  are  planta- 
tions at  Paz,  Cochabamba  and  Alto-Peru,  but  the  quality  is  in- 
ferior. 
Coca  drank  as  tea  has  the  same  aroma  and  taste  as  the  finest 
pearl  tea,  without  any  stimulating  qualities  ;  from  its  numerous 
good  properties,  it  promises  to  become  an  important  commercial 
article  of  Peru  and  Bolivia.  J.  M.  M. 
ON  DAPIININE. 
Bf  Const.  Zwenger. 
Daphnine  was  first  discovered  by  Vauquelin  in  the  bark  of 
Daphne  alpina,  afterwards  by  L.  Gmelin  and  Baer  in  the  bark 
of  Daphne  mezereum  ;  but  little  is  known  of  its  properties  and 
constitution. 
Old  mezereon  bark  yields  little  daphnine.  The  author  em- 
ploys the  recent  bark  collected  at  the  beginning  of  blooming; 
it  is  cut,  bruised  with  alcohol  into  a  fibrous  mass,  and  digested 
with  strong  alcohol.  The  resulting  tincture,  containing  bur 
little  foreign  compounds,  may  be  repeatedly  employed  for  ex- 
hausting fresh  bark.  After  the  entire  evaporation  of  alcohol, 
boiling  water  leaves  a  resinous  mass  of  an  acid  nature,  colored 
by  chlorophyll  and  readily  soluble  in  strong  and  weak  alcohol. 
The  cold  aqueous  solution  is  filtered,  precipitated  with  acetate 
of  lead,  and  the  filtrate  precipitated  by  subacetate  of  lead  and 
boiled.  The  washed  precipitate  is  decomposed  by  sulphuretted 
hydrogen  and  the  aqueous  filtrate  evaporated  to  crystallize  ;  if 
this  solution  should  become  too  ropy,  the  addition  of  a  little 
alcohol  is  advisable.  The  crystals  are  washed  with  diluted 
alcohol  and  recrystallized  from  water. 
The  acetate  of  lead  precipitates  a  little  daphnine,  but  removes 
substances  which  prevent  the  crystallization  of  daphnine.  From 
