ACTION OF NITRIC ACID ON ALCOHOL, ETC. 279 
tain quantity of Santonine, should be saturated, with milk 
of lime, and evaporated again. 
Santonine is a principle sui generis, approaching some- 
what in character the concrete volatile oils, or stearoptenes. 
It is presented in the form of brilliant crystals, which are 
elongated, quadrilateral tables ; inodorous, and almost insipid, 
arising from its little solubility, requiring five thousand times 
its weight of cold water to dissolve it. Its solution in alco- 
hol has a very decided bitterness. 
According to Mr. Calloud, Santonine has a special mortal 
action upon the lumbricoides, he having administered it to 
hundreds of children with such a success as to exceed his 
expectations. The insipidity of this substance, causes it to 
be preferred to the oil of the semen-contra, which is exces- 
sively acrid. Mr. C. associates it with sugar, and gives it in 
the form of lozenges. 
The dose is 30 to 50 centigrammes a day. Each tablette 
should contain 2§ centigrammes of active matter. A. D. 
Bulletin de Therapeutique. 
ART. LXX. — ON THE ACTION OF NITRIC ACID ON ALCO- 
HOL, AND ON NITRIC ETHER. 
By M. Millon. 
All attempts, to the present time, to effect a combination 
of nitric acid with ether have been unsuccessful 5 exhibiting 
a very peculiar hiatus in the midst of the compound ethers ; 
and the absence of this compound was rendered still more 
remarkable by the discovery of a nitrate of methylene. 
The effect produced on the mode of oxidation of metals, 
by the admixture of nitrous acid with the nitric, caused a sus- 
