AmM°y*'i&?*rm'}  Gleanings  from  the  German  Journals.  25  c 
in  nitric  acid.  Carbolic-acid  intoxication  will  transform  either  ail  of 
these  sulphates,  or  at  least  some,  into  sulphocarbolates.  Since  barium- 
sulphocarbolate  is  soluble  in  nitric  acid,  Dr.  Vulpius  acidulates  the  sus- 
pected urine  strongly  with  nitric  acid,  when  it  will  either  not  be  precip- 
itated at  all,  or  only  slightly,  by  barium  chloride.  The  presence  of 
carbolic  acid  in  the  system  can  be  thus  easily  determined. — Pbarm* 
Ztg.,  March  5,  1879. 
Naringin,  the  bitter  principle  of  Citrus  decumana,  discovered 
in  Java  by  de  Vrij  in  1857,  an(^  formerly  supposed  to  be  identical  with 
hesperidin,  the  bitter  principle  of  Citrus  limonum,  exists  in  almost  all 
parts  of  the  plant,  but  most  particularly  in  the  fully  developed  blos- 
soms, which  sometimes  contain  as  much  as  2  per  cent  ,  while  the 
undeveloped  contain  only  0*29  per  cent.  A  single  tree  not  unfre- 
quently  yields  100  kilograms  of  fresh  flowers,  which,  when  distilled 
with  water,  yield  an  oil  of  neroli  equal  in  all  respects  to  the  French  or 
Italian  oil.  While  distilling  this  oil  a  large  percentage  of  naringin  was 
found  to  separate  in  needle-shaped  crystals  on  cooling  of  the  residue.* 
It  was  purified  by  dissolving  in  boiling  water,  separating  the  coloring 
matter  and  tannic  acid  by  sugar  of  lead,  redissolving  repeatedly  in  alco- 
hol the  almost  pure  naringin,  which  crystallizes  from  the  liquid  on 
cooling,  precipitating  by  adding  water,  and  finally  crystallizing  from  hot 
acetic  acid  in  white  crystals,  resembling  quinia  sulphate.  Hoffmann 
finds  naringin  soluble  in  300  parts  of  cold,  very  soluble  in  hot  water* 
alcohol  and  glacial  acetic  acid,  insoluble  in  chloroform,  ether,  etherial 
oils  and  benzol  ;  it  has  a  bitter  taste,  rotates  polarized  light  to  the  left, 
and  forms  yellow  solutions  with  alkalies,  from  which  it  is  precipitated 
in  crystals  by  acids.  When  boiled  with  diluted  acids,  it  splits  into  a 
crystalline  substance  and  a  sugar,  resembling  mannite,  called  hesperidin 
sugar.  When  dehydrated,  it  melts  at  1  7 1  C.,  is  colorod  brownish-red 
by  solution  of  iron-chloride,  and  is  easily  distinguished  from  all  other 
principles  of  Aurantiaceae,  hesperidin,  limonin  and  murrayin,  by  its 
solubility,  melting  point  and  reaction  with  chloride  of  iron. — Archiv  d*. 
Pharm.,  Feb.,  1879,  p.  139. 
Betulin,  a  peculiar  principle  of  birch  bark,  was  isolated  in  col- 
orless needles,  melting  at  25 1°,  by  Wigman,  by  extracting  the  bark 
with  boiling  96  per  cent,  alcohol,  distilling  off  the  alcohol,  treating  the 
residue  first  with  water  and  then  with  soda-lye,  crystallizing  from  ben- 
zol or  petroleum,  and  decolorizing  by  boiling  an  alcoholic  solution  of 
