418  GLEANINGS  FROM  THE  FRENCH  JOURNALS. 
of  carbon  and  the  whole  thrown  upon  a  double  paper  filter  and 
well  washed  with  sulphuret  of  carbon  by  means  of  a  pipette. 
The  filters  are  then  dried  and  weighed,  the  difference  in  weight 
between  the  empty  filter  and  that  containing  the  cantharidin  gives 
the  weight  of  that  principle  contained  in  40  grammes  of  the  can- 
tharides  treated. 
By  this  method,  in  several  assays,  the  product  has  ranged 
between  18  and  22  centigrammes  per  40  grammes,  an  average 
of  20  centigrammes  in  4000  centigrammes.*  This  process  can 
easily  be  applied  to  the  preparation  of  cantharidin  for  com- 
merce.— Jour,  de  Pharmacie,  Juillet,  1864. 
On  the  alkaloid  of  Qroton  tiglium.    By  M.  TusiN  The 
author  believes  he  has  recognized  the  presence  of  an  alkaloid 
in  the  seeds  of  Croton  tiglium  like  cascarillin,  and  which  crys- 
tallizes like  it,  but  which  differs,  nevertheless,  by  its  relations 
with  sulphuric  and  nitric  acids.  The  author  does  not  speak  of 
its  composition. 
The  process  for  its  extraction  is  the  same  as  that  which  has 
been  employed  by  the  author  in  preparing  ricinin,  [see  page 
423  of  this  volume]  viz  :  The  croton  seeds  are  bruised,  exhaust- 
ed with  water  and  the  infusion  evaporated.  The  product  is 
exhausted  by  boiling  alcohol ;  the  alcoholic  liquor  is  allowed 
to  stand  until  a  resinoid  matter  is  deposited,  and  then  evapo- 
rated partially,  when  on  standing  the  crotonin  is  deposited  in 
crystals.  The  paper  does  not  say  whether  this  principle  is 
identical  with  ricinin  or  not — Zeitschr.  fur  Chem.  und  Pharm. 
and  Jour,  de  Pharm.,  July,  1864. 
On  a  new  falsification  of  Saffron.  By  M.  Guibgurt. — 
M.  Vesque,  Pharmacien  of  Lizieux,  has  received  recently  from 
a  house  in  Paris,  under  the  name  of  "  Safran  du  G-atinais"  250 
grammes  of  a  saffron  of  inferior  quality,  containing  about  thirty 
per  cent,  of  a  material  judged  to  be  the  stamens.  Professor 
Decaisne,  who  has  examined  this  substance,  has  recognized  in 
the  length  of  the  filaments,  the  cylindrical  form  of  the  anthers 
and  the  large  size  of  the  pollen  grains,  that  these  stamens  are 
those  of  a  Qrocus.    Bat  they  are  not  the  stamen3  of  the  mother 
*This  is  more  than  was  found  by  Warner,  who  obtained  2  03  parts  from 
f>00  or  0'4  from  100,  whilst  the  above  is  0*5  per  cent. 
