Am.  Jour.  Pliarm.) 
September,  1894.  J 
Folia  Scopolice  Carniolicce. 
431 
When  calcined  sodium  carbonate  is  fused  with  boric  acid  ordinary 
borax  is  produced. 
Boric  acid  may  replace  successively  the  hydroxyl  groups  of  poly- 
hydric  alcohols,  forming  mono-,  di-,  tri-  and  poly-products ;  there- 
fore we  may  have  simultaneously  formed  one  or  more  products  of 
transformation. 
Glycerin  here  evidently  plays  the  part  of  a  catalytic,  as  sulphuric 
acid  does  in  the  formation  of  ether  from  alcohol.  Thus  alcohol  is 
not  converted  into  ether  and  water  by  boiling  alone,  but  is  so  con- 
verted by  boiling  with  sulphuric  acid.  The  catalytic  function  of 
polyhydric  alcohols  is  very  clearly  typified  in  the  action  of  glycerin 
on  borax.  The  quantity  of  glycerin  has  neither  increased  nor 
decreased,  but  has  nevertheless  taken  part  in  the  several  reactions, 
which  would  not  have  resulted  but  for  the  presence  of  glycerin,  or 
some  other  polyhydric  alcohol,  or  an  aldehyde. 
Catalysis  has  been  of  no  small  service  in  advancing  stereometric 
chemistry  through  the  agency  of  micro-organisms,  so  admirably 
adapted  for  mesotomising  various  asymmetric  carbon  compounds, 
as  the  amylic  alcohols,  propylene  glycol,  mandelic  acid,  glyceric 
acid  and  many  others,  through  the  agency  of  organized  ferments, 
such  as  penicillium  glauca,  bacterium  termo,  etc. 
Unfortunately  we  do  not  possess,  in  the  inorganic  field,  an  invalu- 
able polariscope,  which  will  reveal  to  us  at  a  glance  the  ultimate 
transformations  of  a  body  under  given  conditions. 
Laboratory,  Smith,  Kline  &  French  Co. 
Philadelphia,  July  18,  1894. 
FOLIA  SCOPOLI^  CARNIOLICA. 
By  J.  B.  Nagk^voort. 
Since  Professor  E.  Schmidt  (Marburg)  has  established  a  place  for 
scopolamine,  which  is  due  it  in  the  list  of  alkaloids,  it  may  be  wel- 
come to  the  readers  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  to  have 
a  record  of  an  answer  to  the  question :  Do  the  leaves  of  Scopolia 
carniolica  also  contain  scopolamine  ? 
The  writer  has  been  in  a  favorable  position  to  speak  o-n  this  sub- 
ject, as  I  have,  for  the  past  two  years,  had  a  vigorous  plant  of  sco- 
polia carniolica  in  my  garden  for  the  purpose  of  identifying  its 
alkaloid  with  commercial  hyoscine. 
