EDITORIAL. 
569 
tlie  particular  species  of  Ricinus  yielding  it,  would  form  an  acceptible  addition 
to  any  collection  of  Materia  Medica. 
f.  Vegeto- Alkalies,  their  Salts,  and  other  Crystalline  Principles  of  Medicinal 
Substances.— In  this  department  the  Exhibition  presents  a  display  which  is 
highly  creditable  to  the  progress  of  chemical  knowledge,  and  its  application 
to  industrial  purposes.  Nor  should  it  he  otherwise  when  we  reflect  on  the 
extraordinary  attention  which  organic  chemistry  has  of  late  received,  the  great 
diffusion  of  knowledge  regarding  its  laws,  and  the  numerous  triumphs  which 
in  various  directions  it  has  achieved 
Vegetable  alkaloids  are  contributed  hy  England,  France,  Germany,  Italy,  ( 
Turkey,  and  Brazil — many  of  them  as  specimens  of  unequalled  purity  and 
beauty.    To  commence  with  the  most  important,  we  will  notice  those  of  cin- 
chona bark. 
Quinine. — The  sulphate  is  exhibited  by  two  English  and  several  German, 
French,  and  Italian  manufacturers.  Many  of  the  samples  were  chemically 
examined  by  the  Jury,  and  were  found  in  every  case  to  be  of  satisfactory 
purity.  The  purity  of  a  drug  so  important  and  high-priced  as  quinine  ought 
to  engage  the  attention  of  each  pharmaceutist,  who  should  rigorously  refuse 
all  which  may  not  stand  the  required  tests,  nor  should  the  medical  man  and 
the  directors  of  hospitals  exercise  a  less  vigilant  care.  The  use  of  quinine 
imperfectly  purified  is  open  to  objection,  for  which  the  reduction  in  price  by 
no  means  compensates.  The  admission  of  so  valuable  a  medicine  in  a  form 
acknowledged  to  be  impure,  and  that  without  any  standard  by  which  to  de- 
termine the  amount  and  nature  of  impurity  which  are  to  be  held  allowable, 
affords  opportunity  for  sophistication  only  limited  by  the  principle  or  prudence 
of  the  manufacturers.  In  such  a  compound,  the  question  must  naturally  arise  : 
How  mnch  of  this  effect  is  due  to  the  quinine,  how  much  to  the  quinidine,  and 
how  much  to  the  other  constituents  of  this  preparation  ?  We  think  it  would 
be  altogether  more  scientific  to  discard  such  a  substance,  and  to  employ  the 
cinchona  alkaloids  in  those  forms  of  purity  in  which  they  are  now  so  easily 
obtainable. 
The  quinine  salts  exhibited  are  very  numerous,  and,  we  may  add,  very  un- 
necessary, so  far  as  medicine  is  concerned.  The  citrate,  phosphate,  hypo- 
phosphite,  hydrochlorate,  acetate,  lactate,  valerianate,  tannate,  kinate,  picrate, 
and  hydroferrocyanate  are  all  to  he  seen. 
Cinchonine  and  quinidine,  and  their  salts,  are  also  displayed  in  several  collec- 
tions ;  aricine  and  its  sulphate,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  in  only  one — that  of 
Messrs.  Howards  and  Sons.  This  house  also  exhibits  a  specimen  of  the  cin- 
chonidine  of  Pasteur,  and  a  very  large  one  of  its  sulphate.  Sulphate  of  cin- 
chonidine  is  also  contributed  hy  Messrs.  Dufour  Brothers,  of  Genoa. 
We  may  also  here  name  as  eminently  worthy  of  notice  (mainly  as  an  indi- 
cation of  skill  and  patience)  the  extraordinary  series  of  cinchona  products 
displayed  by  Dr.  Zimmer,  of  Frankfort-on-Maine.  This  series,  which  numbers 
about  a  hundred  specimens,  includes  combinations  of  the  cinchona  alkaloids, 
quinine,  quinoidine,  quinidine,  cinchonine,  and  cinchonidine,  with  a  great 
variety  of  acids,  mineral  and  vegetable.  It  also  includes,  what  are  far  more 
interesting,  pure  kinic  acid,  colorless  and  well  crystallized,  kinate  of  lime, 
pure  cinchona-bark  wax  (a  greenish-gray  substance),  the  fatty  acid  of  this 
wax  in  a  pure  state  called  cincho-cerotic  acid  (Cincho-cerotinsdure),  dalleio- 
chin,  &c. 
The  chemical  products  of  opium  are  extremely  well  represented  by  exhibi- 
tors from  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany,  and  Italy.  M.  Menier,  of  Paris, 
displays  crystals  of  pure  morphia,  which  are  the  finest  we  ever  saw,  and  his 
hydrochlorate  of  the  same  base  is  hardly  less  excellent.  Codeine  forms  a 
striking  object  in  the  case  of  Messrs.  J.  F.  Macfarlan  and  Co.,  of  Edinburgh, 
whose  specimen  has  the  form  of  a  large  basin  of  crystals.  Messrs.  T.  and  H. 
Smith,  of  Edinburgh,  Morson  and  Son,  of  London,  and  Menier,  likewise  ex- 
hibit good  specimens  of  this  alkaloid  ;  but  for  magnitude  of  crystals  there  is 
nothing  to  equal  that  shown  by  M.  Merck,  of  Darmstadt.    Of  the  other  prin- 
