8o 
Chemical  Notes. 
An.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Feb.,  1879. 
ries  use  yearly  some  25,000  tons  of  molasses-ashes  from  which  they 
obtain  10,000  tons  of  refined  potash,  which  are  used  in  soap  manu- 
facture, in  flint-glass  works  and  in  the  preparation  of  yellow  prussiate 
of  potash.  According  to  a  report  made  on  the  ultramarine  exhibited 
at  Paris,  the  yearly  production  of  Europe  is  now  more  than  10 
million  kilograms,  sold  at  an  average  price  of  2  francs  per  kilo- 
gram. (The  blue  prepared  from  Lapis  lazuli  as  late  as  1820,  cost 
4000  francs  per  kilogram). —  Chem.  Industrie,  Sept.,  Oct.  and  Nov.,  1878, 
On  the  Determination  of  Nitrogen  as  Ammonia. — A.  E.  Grete  states 
that  he  is  able  to  obtain  the  theoretical  amount  of  ammonia  in  the 
ignition  of  nitrates  with  soda-lime  by  mixing  with  the  soda-lime  potas- 
sium xanthogenate  (obtained  by  mixing  carbon  bisulphide  with  alcoholic 
solution  of  potassium  hydrate).  This  compound,  CS2KOC2H5,  when 
heated  with  the  soda-lime,  yields  hydrogen  sulphide  in  statu  nascendi,  by 
the  aid  of  which  the  nitrate  is  completely  reduced  to  ammonia.  The 
author  has  applied  this  method  also  to  the  determination  of  nitrogen  in 
various  albuminoids,  and  finds  that  for  the  first  time  the  full  theoretical 
amount  of  nitrogen  can  be  gotten  in  their  analysis. — Ber.  der  Chem. 
Ges.,  xi,  pp.  1557  and  1558. 
On  the  Supposed  Existence  of  Chrysophanic  Acid  in  Goa  Powder. — Lie- 
bermann  and  Siedler  find  that  in  the  drug  known  as  Goa  or  araroba 
powder,  in  which  Attfield  (uPhar.  Jour,  and  Trans.,"  1875,  p.  721* 
"Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,"  1875,  p.  330)  found,  along  with  2  per  cent, 
resin,  5-5  per  cent,  woody  fibre  and  7  per  cent,  bitter  extractive  mat- 
ter, 80  to  84  per  cent,  chrysophanic  acid,  there  exists  no  chrysophanic 
acid  at  all,  but  a  substance  easily  converted  into  it.  This  substance 
they  call  Chrysarobin,  and  give  to  it  the  formula  C30H26O7.  If  this  be 
treated  with  an  excess  of  potassium  hydrate  and  air  be  conducted  into 
the  mixture,  at  the  same  time  the  chrysarobin  is  oxydized  to  chryso- 
phanic acid,  the  potassium  salt  of  which  forms 
— Ber.  der  Chem.  Ges.,  xi,  1603. 
