78 
Sumbulus  moscliatus. 
(  Am.  Joub.  Phaem. 
\     Feb.  1, 1871. 
organic  change  of  nerve-matter,  or  by  the  interposition  of  a  foreign 
body  between  the  nerves  and  the  bitter  substance.  To  ascertain  the 
former  lay  beyond  the  facility  of  your  reporter,  and  I  made,  there- 
fore, the  best  of  the  last  supposition,  which  seems  to  give  a  true 
solution  of  the  problem.  When  glycyrrhizin  or  liquorice  dissolves 
upon  the  tongue,  the  latter  soon  becomes  furred,  coated,  this  coat 
being  a  coagulum  of  the  albumen  of  the  saliva  with  the  glycyrrhizin. 
A  few  tests  convinced  me  that  even  a  weak  solution  of  albumen  coagu- 
lates readily  with  glycyrrhizin,  and  I  took  the  artificial  coating  of-the 
nerves  produced  by  the  albuminous  coagulum  of  glycyrrhizin  to  be 
the  true  cause  of  its  masking  bitterness.  If  this  w^as  true,  other 
substances,  which  readily  coagulate  albumen,  should  produce  the  same 
result. 
With  this  idea  I  tried  a  solution  of  carbolic  acid  with  various  bitter 
substances,  and  in  each  case  the  bitterness  was  annihilated  if  the 
quantity  of  carbolic  solution  was  sufficient.  But  while  glycyrrhizin 
and  its  compounds  are  sweet,  this  is  not  the  case  with  carbolic  acid, 
the  taste  of  which  replaced  that  of  the  bitter  substance  with  which  it 
was  mixed,  this  taste  being  in  itself  not  agreeable.  To  remedy  this 
evil  carbolate  of  glycerin  was  tried  with  marked  success.  Epsom 
salts,  cofi'ee,  absinthe,  &c.,  lost  their  bitter  taste  when  mixed  with  a 
sufficiency  of  carbolic  glycerin. — Proc.  Amer.  Pharm,  Assoc.,  1870. 
SUMBULUS  MOSCHATUS. 
Inspector  Lungershausen  of  Moscow,  reports  in  No.  27  of  Wochen- 
schr.  f.  Gartnerei  und  Pflanzenkunde,  that  the  hitherto  unknown  plant 
yielding  musk,  or  sumbul  root,  is  now  in  bloom  in  the  botanical  gar- 
den at  Moscow.  When  the  Russians  occupied  Bucharia,  the  plant  was 
discovered  and  several  roots  were  sent  to  Moscow,  of  which  but  one 
arrived  in  good  condition.  This  new  umbelliferous  plant  it  was  hoped 
would  produce  fruit  and  thus  be  propagated  in  Europe.  The  root  has 
been  used  in  Russia  with  considerable  success  in  Asiatic  cholera. 
Professor  C.  Koch  regards  the  plant  as  a  very  interesting  one,  on 
account  of  the  strong  musk  odor  of  its  root,  and  because  the  musk 
deer  lives  in  the  same  regions.  The  root  has  been  known  for  about 
thirty-five  years,  without,  however,  sustaining  the  high  reputation  it 
has  gained  in  Russia,  so  that  it  belongs  already  to  the  obsolete  reme- 
dies.   It  is  now  mainly  employed  in  perfumery  in  place  of  the  high 
