l£0  Cinchona  Alkaloids.  { 
taenia  solium  for  nine  years,  0*5  salicylic  acid  four  times  at  intervals  of 
one  hour  and  then  gave  a  tablespoonful  of  castor  oil.  This  treat- 
ment proved  painless  and  perfectly  successful. — Apoth.  Ztg.f  Jan.  nth, 
1879,  p.  6. 
New  Disinfectant. — An  Australian  physician,  Dr.  Day,  recom- 
mends a  mixture  of  1  part  of  rectified  oil  turpentine,  7  parts  of  benzin, 
and,  to  every  ounce  of  the  mixture,  3  drops  of  oil  verbena  for  disinfect- 
ing clothes,  furniture,  carpets,  wall-papers,  books,  papers,  etc.,  claim- 
ing that  it  does  not  injure  the  latter,  while  the  oxidizing  power  is  suffi- 
ciently great  to  cause  the  articles  to  retain  the  disinfecting  properttes  for 
some  time — Ap.  Ztg.,  Jan.  4th,  1879,  p.  2. 
THE  ACTION  of  SULPHOCYANIDE  of  POTASSIUM  on 
SEVERAL  CINCHONA  ALKALOIDS. 
By  O.  Hesse. 
{Translated  by  P.  H.  Di/g,  Ph. G.,  from  "Archiv  der  Pharmacies  Dec,  1878.) 
Several  years  ago,  Schrage  described  a  method  for  distinguishing 
several  of  the  cinchona  alkaloids  based  on  the  reaction  of  sulphocyanide 
of  potassium  on  their  salts.  Strange  to  say,  cinchonidia  was  entirely 
omitted,  contrary  to  the  fact  that  it  constituted  at  the  time  a  more 
important  article  of  commerce  and  manufacture  (though  under  the 
name  of  quinidia)  than  any  of  the  other  alkaloids  examined  by  him,  with 
the  exception  of  quinia.  But  as  cinchonidia  is  chemically  closely 
allied  to  the  latter,  it  was  obvious  that  the  omission  of  it  made  the 
utility  of  the  method  doubtful.  This  induced  me,  on  a  former  occa- 
sion, to  repeat  the  respective  examinations,  including  cinchonidia,  by 
which  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  microscopic  test  in  question  is 
not  sufficiently  characteristic  to  make  it  reliable,  especially  regarding 
the  distinction  of  cinchonidia  and  quinidia  in  quinia.  I  still  uphold  this 
claim,  but  am  willing  to  admit  now  that  the  presence  of  cinchonidia  in 
quinia  may  be  detected  to  a  certain  degree  by  the  quality  and  quantity 
of  the  sulphocyanide  formed,  but  not  by  the  quality  alone,  as  both 
Schrage  and  GodefFroy  observed.  The  conditions  to  obtain  reliable 
results  are : 
1.  The  sulphocyanide  of  potassium  must  be  in  aqueous  solution  of 
invariable  concentration.  The  strength  employed  in  the  following  is 
that  recommended  by  Schrage  (equal  parts). 
