45 8  Gleanings  from  the  German  Journals.  {Am-slpt.r'i893arm' 
yields  about  30-5  per  cent.,  or  ten  times  as  much. — P.  Soltsien, 
Pharm.  Ztg.,  1893,  4^7- 
The  alkaloids  of  Lupinus  albus. — The  powdered  seeds  are  boiled 
with  two  successive  portions  of  water,  the  decoctions  united  and 
evaporated  to  an  extract  consistency;  this  is  mixed  with  some 
milk  of  lime  and  then  dried  by  the  addition  of  dry  slaked 
lime.  The  dry  powder  is  extracted  with  petroleum  benzin  (b.  p. 
85-1500);  the  solution  is  agitated  with  dilute  hydrochloric  acid  and 
from  this  solution  the  alkaloids  are  liberated  by  potassa  and 
extracted  with  ether.  The  ethereal  solution  upon  evaporation  left 
a  honey-like  crystalline  mass,  which  by  expression  and  the  use  of 
ether  and  benzin  was  separated  into  two  alkaloids,  one  crystallizable, 
the  other  liquid  and  uncrystallizable  (except  when  kept  in  vacuo 
over  sulphuric  acid,  it  then  forms  very  deliquescent  crystals).  Both 
alkaloids  are  monacid,  have  the  formula  C15H24N20,  and  form  aqueous 
solutions  becoming  turbid  upon  heating  ;  they  differ  only  in  physi- 
cal properties  and  the  melting  points  of  the  salts.  The  liquid 
alkaloid  is  probably  identical  with  the  lupanine  of  Hagen  extracted 
from  Lupinus  angustifolius ;  it  yields  a  dextrogyre  hydrochlorate 
melting  at  131-1320  and  an  aurochloride  melting  at  198-1990. 
The  crystallizable  alkaloid  melts  at  990  and  forms  salts  which  are 
more  soluble  and  more  fusible  than  the  corresponding  salts  of  the 
liquid  alkaloid;  the  optically  inactive  hydrochlorate  melts  at 
105-1060,  the  aurochloride  at  182-1830. — A.  Soldaini,  Arch,  der 
Pharm.,  1893,  32 1— 345. 
The  ethereal  oil  of  male-fern. — Dr.  A.  Ehrenberg  obtained  the 
following  yields  of  oil  from  rhizomes  collected  at  different  periods  ; 
the  rhizomes  were  of  recent  collection  and  air  dried  ;  from  these,  oil 
was  separated  by  distilling  with  steam  and  extracting  the  oil  from 
the  aqueous  distillate  by  the  use  of  ether  :  April,  o  008  per  cent.; 
June,  0-025  Per  cent  5  September,  October  and  November,  0-04— 
0-045  Per  cent.  The  ethereal  oil  submitted  to  Professor  R.  Kobert 
for  experiment  was  pronounced  by  him  to  be  a  specific  poison  for 
the  lower  animals  and  to  be  an  undoubted  factor  in  the  male-fern 
treatment  for  tape-worm.  A  preliminary  chemical  examination  of 
the  oil  indicates  that  it  consists  of  free  fatty  acids  of  which  butyric 
acid  predominates  ;  of  a  number  of  esters  of  hexyl  and  octyl  alcohol 
with  the  fatty  acids  commencing  with  butyric  acid  and  including 
