144 
Chemically  Pure  Narceine. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I      March,  1890. 
probably  it  is  only  the  power  of  habit  that  stands  in  the  way  of 
its  general  introduction.  Even  in  England  kaladana  resin  h^>  met 
with  no  acceptance  in  comparison  with  less  easily  obtained  scammo- 
nium,  which  is  there  so  remarkably  favored.  Further,  the  kaladana 
plant  (figured  in  the  Bot.  Mag.,  t.  5720 ;  not  so  well  in  Bentley  and 
Trimen,  "  Med.  PL,"  185)  has  the  great  advantage  over  Ipomoea 
purga  that  it  is  an  annual  and  extraordinarily  widely  distributed. 
Not  only  is  it  quite  common  in  India  (Dymock,  "  Mat.  Med.  W.  I.," 
1885,  S^i),  but  it  flourishes  everywhere  in  warm  and  hot  countries. 
If,  therefore,  there  were  any  demand  established,  presumably  there 
would  not  be  the  slightest  difficulty  in  harvesting  suitable  quantities 
of  the  seed.  The  14  per  cent,  of  fat  that  would  have  first  to  be 
separated  would  remunerate  for  a  portion  of  the  work. 
It  remains  a  question  whether  the  presumption  of  an  abundant 
yield  of  seed  would  be  realized  in  an  agricultural  experiment  with  this 
Ipomcea.  If  this  were  actually  the  case  it  would  seem  to  be  folly 
that  the  English  government  should  take  so  much  trouble  to  accli- 
matize the  Mexican  jalap  plant  in  Jamaica  and  India.  From  the 
standpoint  of  the  resin  it  would  be  much  better  to  apply  this  care 
to  the  kaladana  plant.  Japan  also  possesses  in  Ipomoea  triloba,  or 
Pharbitis  triloba,  a  species  from  the  seed  of  which  the  same  resin 
as  from  jalap  was  obtained  last  year  in  the  laboratory  of  my  col- 
league and  friend,  Shimoyama,  Director  of  the  Pharmacological 
Institute  of  the  University  of  Tokio. — Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans., 
Jan.  11,  p.  546. 
CHEMICALLY  PURE  NARCEINE. 
By  S.  Merck. 
In  a  note,  entitled  "  Narceine  and  its  Salts,"  1  D.  B.  Dott  refers  to 
the  contributions  to  the  knowledge  of  narceine  that  have  appeared 
during  the  last  three  years.  As  the  results  to  some  extent  of  my 
work  are  spoken  of  in  terms  of  unfavorable  criticism,  I  feel  called 
upon  to  bring  forward  the  following  facts  : 
Chemically  pure  narceine  was  not  hitherto  obtainable  in  commerce. 
I  have,  on  the  contrary,  pointed  out  that  the  samples  of  English 
narceine  examined  by  me  during  a  series  of  years  did  not  consist  of 
the  free  base,  but  were  basic  salts — hydrochlorides,  acetates  and 
1  Read  at  the  Newcastle  meeting  of  the  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference. 
