4mM^,rimarm'}     Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.  229 
inverted  by  tartaric  acid  to — 130,  yielded  a  similar  but  dextrin- 
free  honey,  likewise  polarizing  at  — 30.  The  same  bees,  allowed 
freedom,  deposited  a  natural  dextrin-free  honey  polarizing  at  — 35  °. 
The  writer  noticed  that  his  bees  brought  honey  in  August — -practi- 
cally at  the  close  of  flowering  time — and,  seeking  cause,  traced  the 
insects  to  a  neighboring  preserve  factory.  Here  the  insects  sought 
their  supplies  from  the  fresh  fruit  rather  than  from  the  abundant 
sugar,  showing  their  preference  to  invert  sugar. 
The  honey  from  this  source  contained  traces  of  dextrin  and  polar- 
ized at  — 120  to  — 15°.  The  article  closes  with  a  report  on  exam- 
ination of  a  commercial  honey  made  from  equal  parts  of  natural 
honey  and  pure  inverted  sugar.  Such  sophistications  can  be  easily 
detected,  since  they  polarize  at  about  — 500. 
NORWEGIAN  TAR. 
Dr.  K.  Strom  {Arch.  Pharm.,  1899,  525)  reports  a  careful  exam- 
ination of  the  tar  of  Pinus  sylvestris.  By  fractional  distillation  and 
by  chemical  separation  and  identification,  he  finds  the  tar  contains 
4-75  per  cent,  volatile  acids,  10*94  Per  cent,  phenols  and  6o-8o  per 
cent,  hydrocarbons.  The  acids  found  were  formic,  acetic,  propionic, 
normal  butyric,  normal  and  Reynard's  valerianic,  methyl  propyl 
acetic,  normal  capronic,  cenanthic  and  caprylic  and  possibly  pelar- 
gonic,  caprinic  and  pimaric  ;  while  the  phenols  were  cresol,  guaiacol 
creosol,  ethyl-guaiacol,  propyl  guaiacol,  and  two  bodies,  CnH1602 
and  C12H1402.  The  hydrocarbons  are  very  numerous  and  difficultly 
separable.    The  most  noteworthy  of  these  is  retene,  C18H18. 
H.  V.  A. 
THE  SUGARS  IN  CAROB  SEED  DURING.  GERMINATION. 
E.  Bourquelot  and  H.  Herissey,  Comp.  rend.,  129,  614,  have 
shown  that  there  is  developed,  during  germination  of  the  separated 
embryos,  a  soluble  ferment,  which,  acting  on  the  albumen  of  the 
seed,  produces  a  reducing  sugar;  250  grammes  of  the  seed  yielded 
nearly  7  grammes  of  the  sugar,  which  proved  to  consist  of  man- 
nose  and  galactose,  in  the  proportion  of  about  4  to  1. 
L.  F.  K. 
ANALYSIS  OF  ASAFETIDA. 
Mr.  Russell  W.  Moore,  J.  Soc.  Chem.  Ind.  (1899),  18 y  987,  gives 
the  per  cent,  of  resin  content  of  164  samples  of  asafetida.  Only 
