564  Abstracts  from  the  French  Journals. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Nov..  1888. 
of  the  pupils  and  aniline  odor  of  breath.  The  immediate  effects  on 
the  nervous  system  were  shown  in  24  hours  by  coma,  absence  of 
cutaneous  reflexes  and  voluntary  motion,  quick  pulse  (132),  increased 
respiration  (25),  and  profuse  transpiration,  the  latter  occurring  30 
hours  after  ingesting  the  poison.  On  the  second  and  third  days  the 
improvement  was  marked.  Besides  the  purely  nervous  symptoms 
there  was  an  abnormal  coloration  of  the  skin.  Twenty-one  hours 
after  ino-estion  the  urine  contained  traces  of  the  colorants  of  the  bile, 
and  the  serum  was  yellowish-red;  from  the  second  to  the  fifth  day 
the  urine  contained  more  and  more  biliary  pigment ;  on  the  third  day 
an  icterus  appeared,  which  lasted  until  the  ninth.  A  dark  color  of 
the  urine  from  the  sixth  to  the  tenth  day  was  due  to  hsemoglobinuria; 
the  urine  afterward  became  normal.  The  destruction  of  sanguineous 
globules  was  rapid  and  formidable ;  the  normal  5,000,000  per  ccm. 
fell  to  2,700,000  on  the  seventh,  and  1,400,000  on  the  eleventh  days. 
The  globules  were  replaced  slowly;  on  the  eighteenth  day  their  num- 
ber was  about  one-third  of  the  normal  quantity.  Convalescence  re- 
turned with  the  disappearance  of  hsemoglobinuria.  Aniline  may  be 
classed  with  those  poisons  which  produce  the  latter  condition  simulta- 
neously with  icterus. 
Strychmol,  or  Hydrate  of  Strychnine. — This  is  obtained  as 
a  white  precipitate  by  boiling  strychnine  in  a  solution  of  caustic  soda 
with  alcohol,  evaporating  and  directing  a  jet  of  carbonic  acid  gas  upon 
the  residuum  after  dissolving  it  in  water.  The  reaction  of  strychnine 
with  chromate  of  potassium  is  not  obtained  with  strychmol.  With 
sulphuric  and  nitric  acids,  strychmol  gives  a  bright,  carmine  color. 
Boiled  in  dilute  acids  it  decomposes  into  strychnine  and  water.  Its 
formula  is  C'^H^WO-f-H'O.— monde  phar.,  Sept.,  5,  1888. 
Aroanine. — M.  S.  Cotton  of  the  Lyons  Pharmaceutical  Society 
has  completed  a  study  of  the  Argan  tree,  indigenous  to  Madagascar, 
and  known  to  Europe  through  its  wood,  which  is  used  by  cabinet 
makers.  From  the  argan  nut  the  natives  express  an  oil  which  they 
use  for  culinary  purposes ;  the  cake  is  fed  to  cattle.  This  oil,  treated 
with  Poutet's  reagent  (mercury  and  nitric  acid)  thickens  in  about 
twelve  hours,  but  does  not  solidify  like  olive  oil.  The  nut  contains 
about  2  per  cent,  of  vegetable  albumin ;  the  quantity  of  oil  in  it  varies 
from  66  to  77  per  cent.  Its  bitter  principle,  though  insoluble  in  ether, 
chloroform,  aulphide  of  carbon  and  mineral  oils,  dissolves  readily  in  al- 
cohol 90  per  cent,  and  in  water.  It  crystallizes  from  alcohol  in  small,  short, 
