352  Gleanings  from  the  Foreign  Jonrnals.  {^m'l°ll'^™m' 
Pacific  Ocean,  and  E.  philippicum  indigenous  to  the  Philippine  Islands  ; 
both  have  bitter  medicinal  barks. — Pharm.  your,  and  Trans.,  1876, 
February  26. 
Chelidonium  majus. — E.  Masing,  of  Dorpat,  has  made  a  large  num- 
ber of  determinations  of  the  moisture  and  alkaloids  contained  in  the 
herb,  root  and  fruit  of  this  plant,  which  was  collected  during  five 
succeeding  months,  in  periods  varying  from  three  to  ten  days.  The 
amount  of  moisture  varied  in  the  herb  between  80*35  and  91.34  per 
cent.,  and  in  the  root  between  6676  and  85*26  per  cent.  The  total 
amount  of  alkaloids  was  determined  by  digesting  10  grm.  of  the  fresh 
part  of  the  plant  with  25  cc.  of  acidulated  water  and  75  cc.  of  alcohol 
for  12  hours,  the  tincture  evaporated  to  expel  the  alcohol  and  then 
diluted  with  water  to  100  cc.  25  cc.  of  this  solution  was  then  titrated 
with  Mayer's  solution  Jq,  each  cubic  centimetre  of  which  indicates 
0*001675  grm.  chelidonina  ;  a  separation  of  chelidonina  and  chelery- 
thrina  was  not  attempted,  owing  to  the  large  number  of  determina- 
tions made.  The  amount  of  test  solution  required  varied  between 
4*0  and  13*0  cc.  for  the  herb,  4*4  and  16*2  cc.  for  the  root  and  5*3 
and  9*7  cc.  for  the  fruit. 
The  rapid  decrease  of  the  alkaloid  at  the  beginning  of  flowering 
and  the  subsequent  rapid  increase  appear  to  indicate  that  the  alkaloids 
are  used  up  for  the  formation  of  albuminous  substances,  which  are 
deposited  in  the  ovaries.  Another  cause  of  the  vacillation  is  found  in 
the  weather,  the  consumption  of  the  alkaloids  exceeding  their  produc- 
tion during  moist  and  rainy  weather.  A  well-manured  soil  seems  to 
favor  their  production,  since  the  cultivated  plant  showed  about  double 
the  amount  of  alkaloids,  as  compared  with  the  wild  plant,  collected  at 
the  same  time. — Archiv  d.  Phar.,  1876,  March,  224-228. 
Cotoin. — Julius  Jobst  received  coto-bark  from  London  in  1873  (see 
Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,  1875,  p.  541),  and  obtained  last  year  a  crystalliza- 
ble  body  which  appears  to  be  the  active  medicinal  principle  of  the  bark. 
To  obtain  it  the  powdered  bark  is  exhausted  by  ether,  the  tincture  con- 
centrated by  distillation,  the  residue  poured  into  a  capsule  and  mixed 
with  six  parts  of  warm  petroleum  ether  (light  petroleum  benzin). 
After  the  separation  of  a  large  quantity  of  resin,  the  benzin  solution  is 
poured  off  and  allowed  to  crystallize.  The  crystals  are  collected, 
pressed  and  several  times  recrystallized  from  water.  Thus  prepared, 
cotoin  forms  yellowish-white,  light  prismatic  crystals,  has  a  very  biting 
