54°  Gleanings  from  the  Foreign  Journals.  {^i^gS1** 
Hops  as  a  Ferment. — L.  Pasteur  has  also  made  experiments  with  the 
view  of  throwing  light  upon  the  assertion  of  Sacc  that  hops  contain  a 
peculiar  ferment  (see  this  journal,  pp.  320  and  467),  and  arrives  at  the 
conclusion  that  the  presence  of  hops  has  no  influence  upon  the  fermen- 
tation of  dough,  and  that  its  principal  office  appears  to  be,  to  impart  to 
the  bread  a  peculiar  bitterish  taste  which  may  be  relished  by  some 
persons. — Ibid.^  No.  41,  from  Comp.  rend.,  vol.  83,  p.  107. 
Adonis  vernalis,  Lin. — F.  Linderos  obtained  from  the  dried  leaves  of 
this  plant,  which  are  medicinally  employed  in  some  parts  of  Europe 
on  account  of  their  drastic  properties,  nearly  ten  per  cent,  of  aconitic 
acid,  which  appears  to  be  combined  with  calcium  and  patassium.- — 
Ann.  Chem.,  vol.  182,  p.  365. 
Betulin  was  obtained  by  U.  Hausmann  from  the  light  corky  layer 
of  the  European  birch  bark,  after  exhausting  it  with  hot  water,  by 
precipitating  the  alcoholic  decoction  with  an  alcoholic  solution  of  lead 
acetate,  heating  the  mixture  to  boiling  and  precipitating  the  hot  filtrate 
with  ammonium  carbonate.  On  cooling,  it  formed  a  crystalline  magma 
which  was  pressed  and  purified  by  repeated  washings  with  little  ether 
and  recrystallizations  from  hot  alcohol.  It  forms  colorless  long  prisms, 
compressible  to  a  shining  felt-like  mass,  is  easily  rubbed  to  powder 
between  the  fingers,  inodorous,  tasteless,  fusible  at  2500  C.  (corrected 
2580  C),  and  partly  sublimes  in  thin  needles.  It  is  insoluble  in  water, 
but  dissolves  in  alcohol,  ether,  benzol  and  choloroform.  Its  composi- 
tion is  C36H60O3,  and  with  acetic  anhydrid  forms  betulin-diacetate,  a 
crystallizable  ether.  By  dry  distillation,  oily  products  are  obtained, 
which  possess  in  a  high  degree  the  characteristic  odor  of  Russian 
leather. — Ibid.,  p.  368-380. 
Glycyrrhizin  was  observed  by  Gorup-Besanez  (1 861)  to  be  a 
glucoside,  being  split,  when  boiled  with  water,  into  sugar,  and  into  the1 
brown-yellow  resinous  glycyrretin.  P.  Weselsky  and  R.  Benedikt 
have  treated  the  latter  with  fusing  potassium  hydrate,  and  obtained  from 
the  fused  mass  paraoxy-benzoic  acid  (C7H603.H20)  as  the  principal 
product  of  decomposition.— Ber.  d.  deut.  Chem.  Ges.,  1876,  p.  1 158. 
Vanillin  is  the  sole  odorous  principle  of  vanilla,  according  to  the  investi- 
gations of  F.  Tiemann  and  Wm.  Haarmann.  The  aqueous  liquid 
which  is  obtained  in  the  estimation  of  vanillin  by  their  process  (see 
page  132),  yields  to  pure  ether  an  organic  acid,  which  was  recognized 
