172  Gleanings  from  the  Foreign  Journals  {Amxin^!j£rm" 
The  method  that  ought  to  be  adopted  for  the  preparation  of  a  phar- 
maceutical product  of  constant  composition  and  properties  is :  ist, 
percolation  by  alcoholic  tartaric  acid,  and  evaporation  to  a  small  bulk 
at  as  low  a  temperature  as  possible  ;  2d,  crystallization  from  ether  of 
the  base  separated  by  sodium  or  potassium  carbonate  from  the  aqueous 
solutions  of  the  extract  (after  separation  of  resin,  &c.) ;  in  this  way, 
an  inert,  bitter  base,  if  present,  would  be  separated  j  and,  3d,  further 
purification  by  conversion  into  a  crystalline  salt  (hydrobromate).  In 
this  way,  small  quantities  of  another  base  which  obstinately  adheres  to 
aconitia  when  crystallized  from  ether,  are  separated.  The  base 
obtained  in  this  way  is  a  simple  body,  expressed  by  the  formula 
C32H43N012 ;  in  a  state  of  great  purity,  and  possessing  high  physiolo- 
gical activity. — Ibid. 
Non-existence  of  Aricina. — Pelletier  and  Cariol  obtained  from  a 
cinchona  bark  an  alkaloid  which  they  called  aricina  (from  the  Peruvian 
port  Arica) ;  the  same  alkaloid  was  obtained  by  Boerkoehn,  who 
named  it  cusconina,  from  Cusco,  the  port  of  exportation  of  the  bark. 
Manzini  isolated  afterwards  from  the  pale  penquina  an  alkaloid,  cincho- 
vatina  (from  Cinch,  ovata),  which  Bouchardat  and  Winckler  proved 
to  be  identical  with  aricina.  O.  Hesse  has  recently  re-examined  these 
barks,  and  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the  aricina  and  cinchovatina, 
when  perfectly  pure,  are  identical  with  cinchonidia.  The  same  alkaloid 
is  also  that  recentlv  obtained  by  De  Vrij  from  a  cinchona  bark  from 
Jamaica,  and  by  him  supposed  to  be  new. — Zeitschr.  Oesterr.  Jpoth. 
Ver.,  1876,  No.  34,  from  Ann.  d.  Chem.,  clxxxi,  58. 
Cinchona  Culture  in  Java. — The  cinchona  bark  harvest  in  Java 
was  completed  at  the  end  of  September,  and  yielded  fully  45,000  kilos, 
of  which  1 1,534  kilos  were  ready  for  shipment  to  Europe.  At  the 
auction  sale  in  Amsterdam  of  the  cinchona  bark  harvest  of  1 875, 
which  took  place  June  1,  1876,  the  amount  realized  was  111,314.16 
florins,  while  the  total  expenses  of  the  culture  during  that  year  were 
49,857.46  fls.  Dr.  C.  Hasskarl,  in  his  quarterly  report,  states  that  the 
decree  of  the  Dutch  government  to  send  him  to  South  America  for 
the  purpose  of  transplanting  the  cinchonas  to  Java,  is  dated  June  30, 
1852,  so  that  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  that  culture  is  near  at 
hand. — Pbar.  Handehbl.,  Jan.  17. 
The  Conversion  of  ricinoleic  into  stearic  acid  has  been  effected 
