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ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
that from which our mart is usually furnished, and varied in 
character from that generally employed. 
There are several varieties of astringent vegetable extracts 
considered as kino, seven of which are described by Guibourt, 
all more or less soluble in boiling water and alcohol, to which 
last they impart a beautiful red color. To discriminate between 
these various qualities, requires an eye familar with their gene- 
ral appearance. Catechu, broken in very small lumps, is 
sometimes sold and used for kino. This is not liable to 
gelatinize. It may always be distinguished from kino by 
being less soluble in alcohol, and wanting the red coloring 
principle which is developed by this last. 
The object of this note is more particularly to observe that 
the Tincture of Kino, made by the method of displacement, 
is not liable to gelatinize. All that is required is to bruise the 
kino, then mix with it some clear sand, and subject it to the 
action of alcohol in a proper instrument. The result of the 
elimination will be a deeply colored, but very limpid astringent 
tincture, containing all the soluble parts of the kino, while a 
little insoluble residuum alone remains in the filter along with 
the sand. Some that has been prepared in this manner, more 
than six months ago, has since undergone no change whatever. 
Kino, according to analysis, contains tannin, resin, extrac- 
tive, and coloring matter. 
The first of these is the active agent. By displacement, it 
appears that all these principles are carried off by the alcohol 
with the exception of the insoluble extractive, {apotheme of 
Berzelius,) which is left behind, and to the action of this last 
substance may we attribute the decomposition of the tincture 
by long contact with alcohol. The nature of this substance 
remains to be determined. 
