60         ON  THE  ESTIMATION  OF  CREAM  OP  TARTAR,  ETC. 
grain,  prepared  by  MM.  Lie'geois  and  Hottot  by  the  above  pro- 
cess, killed  a  frog  in  four  minutes,  while  it  required  a  grain  and 
a-half  of  the  most  active  they  could  find  in  commerce  to  produce 
the  same  effect. 
What  foreign  aconitine  is  we  have  no  means  of  knowing.  It 
may  be,  as  M.  Barre9will  supposes  [Repertoire  de  Qhimie  Ap- 
pliquee,  September,  1863,  p.  353),  "  some  peculiar  principle, 
such  as  asparagine,  or  perhaps,  in  some  instances,  for  the  most 
part,  sulphate  of  lime."  The  latter  was  not  the  case  with  two 
samples  we  have  examined,  which  possessed  no  more  activity 
than  that  mentioned  by  our  correspondent. 
The  British  Pharmacopoeia,  we  have  been  informed,  makes 
considerable  use  of  alkaloids,  and  as,  in  consequence  of  their 
greater  cheapness,  most  of  these  will  be  imported  from  abroad, 
it  will  be  incumbent  on  pharmaceutists  to  test  their  activity  by 
experiments  on  living  animals,  or  procure  the  alkaloids  from 
reliable  English  sources. — Chem.  News,  London,  Oct.  21?  1863, 
from  Journ.  de  Bharmacie,  August,  1863. 
ON  THE  ESTIMATION  OF  CREAM  OF  TARTAR,  TARTARIC 
ACID,  AND  POTASH  CONTAINED  IN  WINE. 
By  MM.  Berthelot  &  A.  De  Fleurieu. 
1.  In  studying  the  acids  contained  in  wines  we  have  com- 
menced with  tartaric  acid,  being  the  most  known  among  them. 
We  first  tried  to  find  a  process  for  estimating  cream  of  tartar. 
After  various  attempts,  we  decided  on  the  following  process : — 
Take  ten  cubic  centimetres  of  wine,  which  introduce  into  a 
small  flask,  and  add  fifty  cubic  centimetres  of  a  mixture  of 
equal  parts  of  alcohol  and  ether ;  shake  and  cork  the  flask,  and 
leave  it  for  twenty-four  hours  to  the  ordinary  temperature.  At 
the  end  of  this  time  the  cream  of  tartar  will  be  precipitated, 
and  will  adhere  to  the  sides  of  the  vessels,  while  the  acids,  the 
water,  and  the  rest  of  the  matters  contained  in  the  wine  re- 
main in  solution  in  the  ethero-alcoholic  mixture.  This  mixture 
retains  besides  about  two  milligrammes  of  cream  of  tartar, 
which  must  be  taken  into  the  account. 
To  effect  the  estimation,  decant  the  liquid  and  throw  it  on  a 
small  filter ;  wash  the  precipitate,  by  decantation,  in  the  same 
