550 
Kino  in  Species  from  Myristica. 
/Am.  Jour.  Phariu. 
X     October,  1896. 
would  be  any  opportunity  in  Buitenzorg  for  collecting  a  sufficient 
quantity  of  Myristica  juice,  or  of  its  crystalline  sediment,  for  the 
purpose  of  a  chemical  analysis  on  a  larger  scale,  I  judged  it  worth 
while  to  attempt  to  determine  the  chemical  nature  of  the  scanty 
deposit  isolated  from  the  liquid  kino  of  M.  fragrans,  by  making  use 
of  the  crystallographic  and  optic  appliances  of  the  University. 
After  having  shown,  with  some  degree  of  certainty,  that  the 
crystals  of  the  deposit  consist  of  an  organic  calcium  salt,  decom- 
posable by  mineral  acids,  and  yielding  by  treatment  with  diluted 
sulphuric  acid,  the  very  characteristic  cross-like  bundles  of  needle- 
shaped  prisms  of  calcium  sulphate  ;  and  secondly,  that  according  to 
their  chemical  behavior  and  their  crystalline  form  they  could  not  be 
calcium  oxalate,  but  rather  showed  the  greatest  analogy  to  a  cal- 
cium tartrate  artificially  prepared  from  Rochelle  salt  and  calcium 
chloride,  I  forwarded  the  remaining  small  quantity  of  crystals  to  my 
friend  and  colleague,  Dr.  H.  Bucking,  Professor  of  mineralogy  at 
Strasburg,  who  had  kindly  offered  his  co-operation  in  settling  the 
question  by  transforming  the  crystals  into  the  optically  well-defina- 
ble and  characteristic  salts,  barium  tartrate  and  antimonyl-barium 
tartrate  [Ba(SbO)2  (C4H406)2.2H20].  The  result  of  his  examination 
was  the  discovery  that  the  crystals  isolated  from  Myristica  kino  and 
the  artificial  calcium  tartrate  (neutral  salt)  both  equally  formed  the 
sphaerolithic  and  feathered  bundles  of  the  first-named  barium  salt, 
as  well  as  the  partially  six-sided  and  partially  rhombic  plates  of  the 
antimonyl-barium  salt.  The  kino  crystals  ought,  therefore,  to  be 
considered  as  calcium  tartrate.  However,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  the  chief  bulk  of  the  crystalline  deposit  of  the  Myristica  juice 
consists  of  the  mentioned  calcium  salt,  the  observation  that  the 
crystals  do  not  seem  to  be  soluble  entirely  without  the  slightest 
residue  either  in  cold  solution  of  potassium  hydrate,  or  in  diluted 
acetic  acid,  makes  it  not  wholly  improbable  that  the  said  deposit 
may  perhaps  contain  a  small  admixture  of  calcium  oxalate;  which 
is  so  widely  spread  in  the  cellular  tissues  of  plants.  This  question 
will  have  to  be  settled  at  some  future  occasion.  I  am  not  aware  that, 
besides  calcium  oxalate,  sulphate,  phosphate  and  carbonate  (occurring 
in  amorphous  form  in  the  so-called  cystoliths),  calcium  tartrate  has 
been  very  frequently  found  as  a  crystalline  secretion  in  vegetable 
organs,  since  the  observation  of  Schimper,  who  proved  its  existence 
in  the  leaves  and  petioles  of  Ampelopsis  and  of  Vitis,  especially  of 
V.  lubrusca.    Consideration  of  the  well-known  presence  of  soluble 
