AmNo°vU,r"z?7h6"rm'}  Gleanings  from  the  Foreign  Journals.  509 
Table  showing  amount  of  morpnia  obtained  by  different  processes 
on  samples  of  dried  powdered  opium  : 
a 
*6 
0 
ba 
■g  > 
S  0 
a 
Cm  % 
"o 
< 
Fliicl 
Guibc 
Schac 
Guille 
pq 
6 
Turkish, 
26 
9'5 
IO*2 
I  I'O 
I2'8 
9-8 
I2'I 
13-0 
Persian, 
25 
8-o 
9-0 
n  *o 
13-0 
87 
I2'3 
Indian, 
J5 
3*o 
3-6 
4-0 
5'2 
3'2 
4-9 
5'6 
GLEANINGS  FROM  THE  FOREIGN  JOURNALS. 
BY  THE  EDITOR. 
Vanillin  from  Wood-tar. — Reimer  observed  a  reaction  which  is  com- 
mon to  all  phenols,  by  which  the  latter  are  transformed  into  aromatic 
aldehyds.  Phenol  is  mixed  with  chloroform  and  an  excess  of  soda 
solution  ;  after  the  reaction  the  excess  of  undecomposed  chloroform  is 
distilled  off  and  an  acid  added,  when  salicylic  aldehyd  is  produced,  which 
may  be  purified  by  combining  with  sodium  bisulphite  and  liberation  by 
an  acid.  Guaiacol  treated  in  the  same  way  yields  vanillin,  the  aldehyd 
of  vanillic  acid.  Gorup-Besanez  found  (1867)  guaiacol  to  be  one  of 
the  constituents  of  beech  wood-tar  creasote. — Pbar.  Cent.  Halle, 
No.  31. 
To  distinguish  beech-tar  creasote  from  coal-tar  creasote,  Professor  R. 
Boettger  recommends  to  dissolve  one  drop  of  the  creasote  in  40  cc. 
(10  fluidrachms)  of  distilled  water,  and  add  a  few  drops  of  a  concen- 
trated solution  of  ferric  chloride.  The  appearance,  after  a  few  minutes, 
of  a  dirty  brownish  yellow  coloration  indicates  the  presence  of  Reichen- 
bach's  beech-tar  creasote,  while  a  faint  blueish  violet  coloration  is 
proof  of  the  presence  of  carbolic  acid. — Phar.  Cent.  Halle,  No.  33. 
The  tanifuge  properties  of  pumpkin-seed,  according  to  Heckel,  reside 
in  the  perisperm.  Ferd.  Vigier,  however,  states  that  the  seeds  lose 
nothing  of  their  activity  by  being  deprived  of  their  perisperm,  accord- 
ing to  his  experiments  made  with  the  seeds  of  Cucurbita  maxima, 
which  is  the  species  most  frequently  met  with  in  Paris.  He  prepares 
an  emulsion  from  60  grams  of  the  seeds  deprived  of  the  perisperm,  20 
