NEW  ALKALOID  FROM  THE  CALABAR  BEAN. 
365 
the  practice  of  selling  drugs,  or  preparing  prescriptions  for 
their  patients.  And  should  this  unjust  practice  not  be  discon- 
tinued, it  might  be  enforced  by  Act  of  Parliament. 
At  all  events,  the  time  has  come  when  the  medical  and 
pharmaceutical  professions,  as  well  as  the  public,  see  the  ne- 
cessity that  something  must  be  done  ;  and  if  it  must  be  done, 
the  sooner  the  better. — Ch.  W.  Manchester. 
Pharm.  Jour.,  London,  April,  1864. 
NEW  ALKALOID  FROM  THE  CALABAR  BEAN: 
Messrs.  Jobst  and  Hesse,  of  Stuttgardt,  have  instituted  a 
chemical  examination  of  the  Calabar  bean.  They  found  the 
active  principle  to  be  contained  in  the  cotyledons  only.  It  was 
obtained  by  treating  the  beans  with  alcohol,  and  then  acting  by 
means  of  ether  on  the  residue  left  after  evaporation  of  the  alco- 
holic solution.  The  ethereal  solution  after  evaporation  left  pure 
physostigmine.  Physostigmine  is  a  brownish-yellow  mass,  amor- 
phous, and  in  the  first  instance  separated  in  the  form  of  oily 
drops.  It  is  easily  soluble  in  ammonia,  caustic  and  carbonated 
soda,  ether,  benzole,  and  alcohol ;  less  soluble  in  cold  water. 
From  the  ethereal  solution  it  is  entirely  precipitated  by  animal 
charcoal.  The  watery  solution  has  a  faintly  burning  taste,  a  " 
clearly  alkaline  reaction  ;  it  gives  a  copious  kermes-colored  pre- 
cipitate with  biniodide  of  potassium,  and  a  precipitate  of  hydra- 
ted  oxide  in  solution  of  chloride  of  iron  ;  fused  with,  hydrate  of 
potash,  it  evolves  fumes  which  have  a  strongly  alkaline  reaction. 
Acids  dissolve  it  easily,  and  yield  solutions  of  salts,  which  have 
mostly  a  dark  red,  more  rarely  a  dark  blue,  color.  The  hydro- 
chlorate  of  physostigmine  yields  precipitates,  with  tannic  acid, 
reddish-white;  chloride  of  platinum,  pale  yellow;  chloride  of 
gold,  bluish — a  reduction  taking  place  ;  bichloride  of  mercury, 
reddish- white.  Twenty-one  beans  yielded  only  a  little  alkaloid. 
Two  drops  of  a  watery  solution  of  the  alkaloid  placed  on  the 
eye  caused  the  pupil  to  contract,  after  ten  minutes,  to  about 
one-twentieth  of  its  original  diameter.  In  this  condition  it  re- 
mained for  an  hour  ;  after  from  four  to  six  hours  it  had  again 
assumed  its  former  size.  Taken  internally,  physostigmine  is  as 
poisonous  as  the  most  dangerous  cyanides.    The  alkaloid  from 
