10  Gleanings  from  the  German  Journals.  [Am'£S£fm' 
add  it  slowly  in  small  portions  to  cold  water. — (Bayr.  Ind.  u. 
Gewerbebl.)  Pharm.  Centralhalle,  1 89 2,  699. 
Cytisine. — The  results  of  an  extended  investigation,  during  which 
attempts  were  made  to  solve  the  constitutional  formula,  are  sum- 
marized as  follows:  The  formula  for  cytisine  is  CnHl4No0  ;  this 
alkaloid  occurs  in  numerous  species  of  Cytisus,  also  in  Ulex  Euro- 
pceus ;  the  alkaloid  ulexine  separated  from  the  latter  by  Gerrard 
and  Symons  is  identical  with  cytisine ;  the  percentage  of  alkaloid  in 
the  seed  of  cytisus  according  to  researches  by  von  Buchka  and 
Magathaes  is  very  variable.  Cytisine  is  a  diacid  base  forming  two 
classes  of  well  crystallized  salts;  by  distillation  with  soda-lime  a 
pyridine  derivative  was  obtained  beside  a  base  C9H13N,  which  is 
possibly  a  hydro-chinoline — A.  Bartheil,  Arch,  der  Pharm.,  1892, 
448-498. 
Alkaloid  of  the  Geoffroya  barks. — The  controversy  regarding  the 
origin  of  these  barks,  which  were  used  as  anthelmintics  during  the 
last  century  and  beginning  of  this  century,  was  never  decided  but 
gradually  was  forgotten  with  the  dropping  of  the  barks  from  the 
various  Pharmacopoeias.  The  u  gray  barks  "  of  the  time  were 
undoubtedly  from  species  of  Geoffroya,  whilst  the  "yellow  barks" 
were  just  as  certainly  derived  from  a  species  of  Xanthoxylon.  Hiit- 
tenschmied  in  1824,  isolated  from  the  "  gray  bark  "  an  alkaloid 
which  he  called  " surinaminc"  and  which  later  was  also  known  as 
geoffroyine ;  from  the  "  yellow  bark  "  which  he  believed  to  be  G. 
Jamaicensis  was  isolated  an  alkaloid  called  "jamaicine"  but  which 
later  was  proven  identical  with  berberme.  According  to  the  direc- 
tions of  Huttenschmied  it  was  possible  to  extract  from  the  true 
bark  the  surinamine  and  confirm  the  tests  given  by  him  ;  it  was  also 
found  that  boiling  water  was  the  best  solvent  (1  :  200)  that  dilute 
alcohol  dissolved  less  than  water,  and  that  in  absolute  alcohol,  ether, 
chloroform,  benzin,  benzol,  etc.,  it  was  insoluble.  It  has  the  formula 
C10H13NO3,  melts  with  decomposition  at  257°  C,  and  forms  salts 
with  most  acids  (none  with  acetic  acid  ;  nitric  acid  even  dilute  gives 
picric  acid),  the  hydrochlorate  decomposes  on  addition  of  water ; 
with  alkalies  it  gives  crystalline  compounds ;  of  the  alkaloidal 
reagents  only  bromine  water  or  bromine  in  potassium  bromide  solu- 
tion gives  a  precipitate.  It  was  found  to  be  identical  with  methyl- 
tyrosin,  with  angclin  prepared  from  the  resin  of  Ferreira  spectabilis 
and  with  rhatanin,  a  substance  extracted  from  a  commercial  rhatany 
