396  Gleanings  from  the  European  Journals.  {As*eJpt°i',i8H73RMi 
by  means  of  a  piece  of  rubber  tubing  with  spring  clamp  attached. 
The  filter  is  capped  with  a  small  filter,  then  inserted  and  well  mois- 
tened so  as  to  rest  against  the  funnel ;  afterwards,  the  liquid  to  be 
filtered  is  poured  upon  it,  and  the  air  in  the  receiving  bottle  rarified 
by  sucking  through  the  rubber  tubing,  which  is  then  closed  by  the 
clamp. — Ohem.  Cent.  Blatt.  1873,  No.  23,  from  Journal  f.  prakt. 
Chemie. 
Couch  Grass,  [Triticum  repens,  Lin.) — Dr.  H.  Muller  corrects  a 
statement  made  by  Ludwig  and  himself  last  year*  to  this  effect,  that 
the  rhizome  of  the  grass  named  contains  only  one  kind  of  sugar — • 
fruit  sugar — and  no  dextrose.  Four  samples  of  the  rhizome  yielded 
him  the  following  amounts  of  levulose  :  2.45,  2.70,  2.81  and  3.33  per 
cent.  After  preparing  the  extract  of  Triticum  repens  during  warm 
weather,  lactic  acid  is  found  in  it,  which,  however,  does  not  pre-exist 
in  the  rhizome,  but  is  formed  in  consequence  of  fermentation.  The 
peculiar  gum  mentioned  in  the  former  paper  was,  by  further  experi- 
ments, ascertained  to  be  a  peculiar  principle,  named  triticin,  which 
resembles  inulin  in  its  optical  behavior  and  in  its  transformation  into 
levulose  by  combining  with  water.  It  is  prepared  by  exhausting  the 
rhizome  with  25  per  cent,  alcohol,  precipitating  with  subacetate  of 
lead,  freeing  the  filtrate  from  lead  by  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  evapo- 
rating to  a  syrupy  consistence  and  precipitating  by  several  volumes 
of  alcohol.  The  precipitate  is  redissolved  in  water,  purified  by  sub- 
acetate  with  some  carbonate  of  lead  and  again  precipitated  by  alco- 
hol. This  process  is  repeated  several  times,  until  the  aqueous  solu- 
tion of  triticin  ceases  to  be  rendered  turbid  by  the  lead  solution  ;  it 
is  then  purified  by  animal  charcoal,  and  finally  by  dialysis. — Archm 
d.  Pharm.  1873,  June. 
Behavior  of  some  Alkaloids  to  Sugar  and  Sulphuric  Acid. — R. 
Schneider  describes  a  series  of  experiments.  If  a  few  milligrams 
of  morphia  are  mixed  with  six  or  eight  times  the  quantity  of  sugar,, 
and  one  drop  of  concentrated  sulphuric  acid  be  added,  the  mixture 
becomes  at  once  purplish  red,  and  passes  after  fifteen  or  thirty  min- 
utes through  violet  blue,  dirty  blue  green  into  dirty  yellow.  Water- 
added  to  the  purple  solution  causes  its  rapid  decolorization.  If  milk 
sugar  be  used  instead  of  cane  sugar,  the  coloration  is  much  fainter 
and  pale  rose-colored.    One-tenth  of  a  milligram  gives  an  intense 
*  See  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy.  1872.  p.  353. 
