464        PRELIMINARY  NOTE  ON  THE  TANNIN  OF  GALLS. 
TRANSFORMATION   OF   AMYGDALINE   INTO  HYDROCYANIC 
ACID  WITHIN  THE  BODY. 
Professor  Kolliker,  and  Dr.  Mtiller,  of  Wiirzburg,  have  arrived 
at  the  following  results  from  a  series  of  experiments  :  1.  Amyg- 
daline  and  emulsine  introduced  separately  into  the  circulatory 
system  by  different  channels,  form  prussic  acid  in  the  blood. 
2.  When  the  quantity  of  these  substances  is  sufficiently  large 
death  soon  occurs  ;  it  takes  place  more  slowly  with  weaker 
doses.  When  amygdaline  is  first  injected  into  the  blood,  and 
emulsine  an  hour  afterwards,  death  speedily  occurs.  3.  When 
emulsine  is  first  injected,  and  amygdaline  forty-five  minutes 
afterwards,  death  is  retarded.  Is  the  emulsine  changed  in  the 
blood,  or  rapidly  excreted  ?  4.  Poisoning  is  not  produced  by 
injecting  amygdaline  into  the  blood,  and  emulsine  into  the  ali- 
mentary canal.  The  emulsine,  therefore,  does  not  pass  from 
the  blood  into  the  digestive  canal,  at  least  not  without  some 
change ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  found  in  the  intestines  on 
post-mortem  examination.  5.  When  emulsine  is  injected  into 
the  blood,  and  amygdaline  into  the  intestines,  poisoning  occurs, 
though  slowly.  Death  has  been  produced  by  introducing  amyg- 
daline into  the  digestive  canal  of  rabbits,  without  any  emulsine. 
The  intestines  of  these  animals,  contain  a  ferment,  capable  of 
converting  amygdaline  into  prussic  acid.  6.  Amygdaline  injected 
into  the  veins,  or  into  the  intestines,  passes  off  in  large  quanti- 
ties, sometimes  rapidly  by  the  urine  ;  some  experimenters,  as 
Wohler  and  Frerichs,  have  not  found  amygdaline  with  certainty 
in  this  excretion  ;  others,  as  Ranke,  suppose  it  to  be  converted 
into  formic  acid.—  British  and  Foreign  Med.-Chir.  Rev.,  from 
Allgem.  Medicin.  Central.  Zeitung. 
PRELIMINARY  NOTE  ON  THE  TANNIN  OF  GALLS. 
By  F.  Rochleder. 
The  author  long  since  stated,  that  the  treatment  of  certain 
organic  substances  with  boiling  alkaline  solutions  in  an  atmo- 
sphere of  hydrogen  furnished  a  good  means  of  breaking  them 
up.    This  process  has  been  applied  by  Kawalier,  in  the  author's 
