398 
Chemical  Notes. 
c  Am.  Jour.  Phartn. 
1        Aug.,  1890. 
testa,  a  thin,  brownish  inner  seed  coat  and  a  milk-white  oily  kernel. 
The  large  parenchyma  cells  of  the  endosperm  contain  roundish 
aleuron  granules  and  minute  starch  grains.  The  elongated  embryo 
terminates  in  about  eleven  narrow  cotyledons,  forming  a  head  and 
enclosing  the  plumule.  Analyzed  by  Professor  E.  Lehmann,  of 
Tomsk  )Phar.  Ztschr.f.  Rnssl.,  1893,  pp.  257  and  273),  the  kernel 
weighing  something  over  one-half  of  the  seed,  yielded  56  per  cent, 
fixed  oil,  6  per  cent,  albumin,  27  percent  sugar,  1 -6  per  cent,  starch, 
9  per  cent,  moisture,  and  2-6  per  cent.  ash.  The  fat  contains  myris- 
ticin,  but  consists  chiefly  of  an  olein  which  is  probably  identical  with 
linolein. 
Adulterated  Mace. — Dr.  T.  F.  Hanausek  received  from  Northern 
Germany  a  sample  of  mace  which  was  adulterated  with  the  arillus 
of.  another  species  of  myristica,  and  agreed  in  nearly  all  respects 
with  Bombay  mace  described  by  the  author  in  1887.  The  large 
ceils  contain  a  resinous  body  which  dissolves  in  alcohol  with  a  saf- 
fron yellow  or  almost  greenish-yellow  color.  The  addition  of  an 
alkali  changes  the  color  to  red,  and  on  acidulating  the  liquid  the 
yellow  color  is  restored.  The  test  is  best  performed  by  rendering 
the  alcoholic  tincture  of  the  material  sufficiently  alkaline  that  filter- 
ing paper  impregnated  with  the  liquid  has  an  orange  color,  the 
paper  is  washed  with  water  to  remove  excess  of  alkali,  and  a  trace 
of  an  acid  is  now  sufficient  to  produce  a  saffron-yellow  spot.  On 
examining  a  transverse  section  of  a  branch  of  Bombay  mace,  the 
cells  near  both  surfaces  are  observed  to  be  homogeneously  filled  with 
a  golden-brown  or  lemon-yellow  mass  of  oil  and  coloring  matter, 
leaving  the  middle  zone  of  the  tissue  of  a  white  color.  This  nearly 
odorless  and  tasteless  mace  is  probably  derived  from  Myristica 
malabarica,  Lamarck. — Ztsch.  f.  N alirungsm.  (Inters.,  1890,  17. 
CHEMICAL  NOTES. 
By  Henry  C.  C.  Maisch,  Ph.G.,  Ph.D. 
A  new  Alkaloid  from  the  Root  of  Scopola  atropoides. — E.  Schmidt 
(Apoth.  Zeit.,  1890,  v,  186)  found  that  two  substances  which  had 
been  sent  to  him  by  Bender  as  hyoscine  and  hyoscine  hydrobromide, 
and  which  had  been  prepared  from  100  kg.  of  Scopola  atropoides, 
differed  from  hyoscine  as  described  by  Ladenburg.  The  free  alka- 
loid melts  at  590  C. ;  on  drying  over  sulphuric  acid  and  then  heat- 
ing to  6o°  C,  it  lost  over  5  per  cent.;  the  gold  double  salt  melts  at 
