250 
Gleanings  in  Materia  Medica. 
/  Am.  Juur.  Pharm. 
(,        May,  1886. 
GLEANINGS  IN  MATERIA  MEDICA. 
By  the  Editor. 
Eriobolrya  japonica,  Lindley,  s.  Mespihis  japonica,  Thunberg,  the 
loquat  tree  or  Japanese  medlar,  has  been  perfectly  naturalized  in 
Brazil,  where  it  grows  quite  luxuriantly.  The  yellow,  pear-shaped 
fruit  is  of  about  the  size  of  a  plum,  covered  with  a  silky  pubescence, 
contains  two  to  five  blackish-brown  glossy  seeds,  and  has  a  vinous  odor 
and  an  agreeable  sweetish-acidulous  taste;  by  fermentation  the  fruit 
yields  a  vinous  beverage.  The  bruised  seeds,  treated  in  the  same 
manner  as  bitter  almonds,  yield  a  distilled  water  containing  0*05  per 
cent,  hydrocyanic  acid,  and  in  appearance  and  odor  closely  resembling 
cherry  laurel  water,  but  having  a  peculiar  bitter  taste.  The  leaves 
of  the  loquat  tree  have  been  found  of  service  in  chronic  diarrhoea. — 
Rundschau  Leitm.,  1886,  p.  224. 
This  species  is  cultivated,  to  some  extent,  in  the  United  States. 
JBassia  latifolia,  Roxburgh;  Sapotacese.  Mahwah  flowers  having 
been  recommended  as  food  for  animals,  Prof.  Church  (Gardeners' 
Chronicle,  Jan.  16,  1886)  has  submitted  them  to  an  examination, 
which  indicated  in  the  air-dry  flowers  the  presence  of  52*8  per  cent, 
of  glucose,  3  2  per  cent,  sucrose,  and  only  2.2  per  cent,  of  nitrogen. 
While  thus  deficient  as  a  nitrogenous  food,  they  seem  to  be  adapted 
for  the  production  of  alcohol,  and  are  said  to  be  largely  used  in 
France  for  this  purpose. 
Opionm  is  present  in  small  proportion  in  Smyrna  opium,  and  is 
prepared  by  O.  Hesse  by  treatment  with  cold  milk  of  lime,  acidulat- 
ing the  solution  with  acetic  acid,  concentrating,  exhausting  the  brown 
mass  which  precipitates  with  ammonia,  acidulating  with  acetic  acid 
and  crystallizing  the  precipitate  from  alcohol  or  ether.  Opionin 
forms  acicular  crystals,  melts  at  227°  C,  is  free  from  nitrogen,  does 
not  dissolve  in  water,  but  is  soluble  in  alkalies.  By  boiling  with 
milk  of  lime  it  is  converted  into  an  acid  freely  soluble  in  water  and 
ether.  On  fusing  opionin  with  potassa,  opionylic  acid  is  produced, 
which  crystallizes  from  ether  in  thick  prisms,  is  readily  soluble  in 
water,  melts  at  126°  C,  and  in  neutral  solutions  gives,  with  silver 
nitrate,  an  amorphous  precipitate,  becoming  crystallized.  Both  acids, 
when  in  alkaline  solut'ons,  yield  precipitates  with  lead  acetate. — 
Liebig's  AnnaL,  ccxxviii,  p.  299. 
Reaction  for  Codeine  and  Morphine. — A  solution  of  1  gm.  ammo- 
nium selenite  in  20  c.c.  of  sulphuric  acid  was  found  to  give,  with  the 
