258  Gleanings  from  the  European  Journals.  {^SSftfSSP 
which  may  be  regarded  as  profit,  since  the  seeds  will  cover  the  ex- 
penses for  labor  and  manure.  To  prove  that  the  seeds  do  not  suffer 
by  the  preparation  of  the  opium,  the  author  selected  160  scarified 
and  the  same  number  of  unscarified  capsules,  of  about  uniform  size,  and 
obtained  from  each  lot  nearly  15  oz.  seeds,  which  yielded  in  each  case 
almost  6  oz.  of  fixed  oil  by  warm  expression. — Ibid.,  163. 
The  Asserted  Presence  of  Table  Salt  in  Extract  of  Meat*  is  dis- 
cussed by  Prof.  Liebig,  who  refers  to  his  researches  published  24 
years  ago,f  when  he  proved  that  the  meat  juice  of  all  animals  is  rich 
in  potassium,  that  it  contains  chloride  of  potassium,  but  only  traces 
of  chloride  of  sodium.  After  the  salts  of  inosic  acid  have  been  pre- 
cipitated by  the  addition  of  alcohol,  the  further  addition  of  about 
five  volumes  of  alcohol  will  cause  a  separation  of  the  liquid  into  two 
layers,  the  lowest  of  which  (about  one-twentieth  of  the  upper  one)  is 
syrupy,  and  will  yield  in  the  cold  prisms  of  pure  chloride  of  potas- 
sium, containing  not  a  trace  of  chloride  of  sodium.  This  is  the  more 
remarkable,  since  the  meat  juice  is  not  free  from  sodium,  which  must 
be  combined  with  another  acid. — Zeitschr.  d.  ocsterr.  Apoth.  Yer., 
1872,  No.  10. 
Distribution  of  Atropia  in  the  Leaves  and  Moot  of  Belladonna. — To 
determine  this  J.  Lefort  exhausts  100  grm.  of  the  fine  powder  with 
alcohol  of  86°,  evaporates  the  alcohol,  and  adds  water  to  obtain  after 
filtration  50  c.c.  solution,  to  which  a  slight  excess  of  iodo-hydrargy- 
rate  of  potassium  is  added  ;  the  precipitate  is  collected  upon  a  weighed 
filter,  washed,  and  dried  by  the  aid  of  hot  air.  It  contains  33-25 
atropia. 
The  leaves  were  collected  from  plants  cultivated  near  Paris,  in 
May,  before  flowering,  and  in  August,  when  the  berries  began  to 
ripen.  1000  parts  of  dry  material  yielded,  by  four  analyses,  in  May, 
0-418,  0-405,  0-421  and  0*392,  and  in  August,  0-457,  0-443,  0-467 
and  0-482  atropia.  By  assaying  leaves  from  cultivated  and  wild 
plants,  collected  at  the  same  season,  the  former  yielded  0-470  and 
0-485,  the  latter,  0-459  and  0-477  alkaloid.  The  author  concludes, 
therefore,  that  the  leaves  collected  from  wild  and  cultivated  plants 
are  equally  reliable  if  collected  during  the  season  of  flowering  and 
fructification. 
*  Amer.  Journ.  Pharmacy,  1872,  p.  213. 
f  Aimalen  der  Chemie  und  Pharmacie,  Ixii,  257. 
