'0  Gleanings  from  European  Journals. 
2.  20  grammes  dissolved  in  three  glasses  of  water,  generally  pro- 
duce four  or  five  stools,  and  five  to  eight  from  25  grammes  ;  the  ef- 
fect usually  commences  in  about  one  hour. 
3.  This  salt  is  the  mildest  of  the  saline  purgatives  ;  it  causes  neither 
exhaustion  nor  pain  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  colic  existing  in  certain 
forms  of  diarrhoea  rapidly  disappears. 
4.  It  produces  no  abnormal  intesinal  contraction,  acts  purely  as  a 
dialytic  purgative,  and  may  be  given  even  during  menstruation  and  in 
pregnancy. 
5.  Owing  to  its  slight  taste,  it  is  readily  taken  without  repugnance. 
6.  It  is  preferable  to  citrate  of  magnesia,  presenting  all  the  advan- 
tages and  none  of  the  inconveniences  of  the  latter.  Dissolved  in  Selt- 
zer water  it  is  more  agreeable,  and  cannot  determine  the  formation 
of  any  calculus.  The  long-continued  use  of  magnesia  salts  is  danger- 
ous;  they  are  not  prescribed  by  judicious  physicians  to  old  persons? 
particularly  if  suffering  from  catarrh  of  the  bladder,  owing  to  the  ten- 
dency of  inducing  the  formation  of  calculi  of  ammonio-phosphate  of 
magnesia. — Ibid.,  p.  401,  from  Union  Pharm. 
Analysis  of  'the  flowers  of  Anthemis  nobilis.  Mr.  Camboulises  exhausts 
the  dry  flowers  with  ether  free  from  alcohol ;  this  tincture  is  evapo- 
rated to  an  extract,  the  mass  taken  up  by  boiling  distilled  water,  fil- 
tered while  hot,  and,  after  twenty-four  hours  repose,  again  filtered. 
Evaporated  to  dryness,  the  residue  exhausted  by  ether,  and  this 
liquid  evaporated  spontaneously,  prismatic  crystals  of  an  organic  acid 
are  obtained,  which  appear  to  be  identical  with  the  anthemic  acid  dis- 
covered by  Pattone  in  the  flowers  of  Anthemis  arvensis*  The  alka- 
loid anthemidin,  stated  by  Pattone  to  have  been  obtained  from  the 
latter  flowers,  could  not  be  prepared  from  Anthemis  nobilis. 
These  flowers,  after  having  been  exhausted  by  ether,  were  treated 
with  90  per  cent,  alcohol,  and  on  evaporation  yielded  an  extract  con- 
sisting mainly  of  a  yellowish  matter,  containing  yellow  globules  of  a 
fixed  oil. 
With  Fehling's  test  the  flowers  indicated  23*498  per  cent.,  by  fer- 
mentation only  14-890  per  cent,  of  glucose  ;  its  seems,  therefore, 
that  besides  glucose,  another  body  is  present  which  reduces  cupric 
oxide. 
100  grm.  of  the  (dry  ?)  flowers  yielded  6  grm.  ashes,  of  which  3*175 
*  Jour,  de  Pharm.  et  de  Chim.,  3  serie,  t.  35,  p.  198. 
