AmA5ust,,i81!)6rm-}    Recent  Contributions  to  Pharmacy.  453 
heated  to  the  boiling  point.  A  precipitate  or  opalescence  will  be 
obtained  in  one  of  the  three  cases. 
The  author  divides  the  alkaloids  into  three  groups,  according  to 
the  concentration  required  for  them  to  produce  a  precipitate. 
The  first  group  includes  such  alkaloids  as  are  precipitated  when 
existing  in  solution  of  a  strength  of  001  to  OOOI  per  cent.  The 
second  group  require  a  concentration  of  01  per  cent.  The  third 
group  are  either  not  precipitated  or  only  from  concentrated 
solution. 
In  the  first  group  are  placed  thebaine,  berberine,  nicotine,  aconi- 
tine,  strychnine,  quinine  and  the  other  cinchonic  alkaloids,  brucine, 
emetine  and  apomorphine ;  in  the  second  group,  morphine,  spar- 
teine, papaverine,  atropine,  narcotine,  codeine,  cocaine  and  hyoscine  ; 
in  the  third  group,  caffeine,  colchicine,  coniine,  cotoine,  narceine, 
pilocarpine,  piperine,  solanine,  theobromine  and  veratrine. 
THE  FUNCTION  OF  CALCIUM  IN  PLANTS. 
The  Pharmaceutical  Journal  for  June  20,  1896,  summarizes  the 
recent  work  on  this  subject  as  follows:  In  1875,  J-  Boehm  arrived 
at  the  conclusion  that  one  of  the  functions  of  calcium  in  plants  is 
to  aid  in  the  conduction  of  carbohydrates.  Subsequently,  A.  F.  W. 
Schimper  showed  that  oxalic  acid  is  a  by-product  in  the  building 
up  of  proteids  in  plants  which  normally  contain  crystals  of  calcium 
oxalate,  and  that,  in  the  absence  of  calcium,  acid  potassium  oxalate 
accumulates  in  the  leaves  and  buds  and  acts  as  a  poison.  He  con- 
cluded, therefore,  that  the  use  of  calcium  is  to  combine  with  and 
neutralize  this  poisonous  salt.  Sugar,  however,  was  proved  to  travel 
in  leaves  containing  no  appreciable  amount  of  calcium,  and  carbo- 
hydrates were  found  sometimes  from  the  seeds  up  the  stem  of  the 
seedling,  without  any  corresponding  emigration  of  calcium.  P. 
Groom  {Annals  of  Botany)  now  suggests  that  acid  potassium  oxalate 
retards  the  action  of  diastase  on  starch,  and  that  the  first  effect  of 
the  salt  on  the  assimilating  tissues  is  the  accumulation  of  starch, 
owing  to  an  arrest  in  the  change  of  the  carbohydrate  into  sugar. 
The  second  effect,  as  the  soluble  oxalate  accumulates,  is  the  retard- 
ation of  the  manufacture  of  starch,  and  hence,  probably,  of  the 
assimilation  of  carbon ;  whilst  the  last  effect  is  the  death  of  the  pro- 
toplasm. Groom's  researches,  therefore,  confirm  Schimper's  discov- 
ery— that  the  evil  effects  of  a  lack  of  calcium  are  to  be  attributed 
