RESEARCHES  ON  THE  ALKALOIDS  OF  NUX  VOMICA.  535 
Hr.  Karsten  considers  that  the  quinine  produced  in  plants  is 
again  absorbed  in  the  process  of  vegetation,  when  the  supply  of 
nutriment  to  the  plant  is  cut  off  or  diminished.  Thus  the  bark 
of  a  tree  which  yielded  3.5  per  cent,  sulphate  of  quinine  when 
fresh  felled,  yielded  only  3  per  cent,  after  it  had  been  kept  six 
months,  during  which  time  the  bark  of  the  tree  remained  upon 
it  perfectly  fresh. 
The  conditions  that  are  considered  by  H.  Karsten  as  most  fa- 
vorable to  the  production  of  a  large  amount  of  organic  bases  in 
cinchona  bark,  are  constant  uniformity  of  climate,  with  alter- 
nating cloudy,  sunny,  and  rainy  weather,  while  those  species 
that  grow  in  variable  climates,  with  intermittent  periods  of  vege- 
tation, furnish  bark  that  contains  a  smaller  amount  of  alkaloids. 
— Ibid. 
RESEARCHES  ON  THE  ALKALOIDS  OF  NUX  VOMICA, 
By  M.  Schutzenberger. 
M.  Desnoix  discovered  some  years  ago  in  nux  vomica  a  new 
base,  igasuria,  which  differs  from  brucia  by  its  greater  solubility 
in  water.  But  he  published  no  analysis  to  establish  its  compo- 
sition and  its  equivalent.  I  have  in  my  possession  several  speci- 
mens of  igasuria  which  were  sold  to  me  as  brucia.  I  wished  to 
profit  by  this  opportunity  to  supply  this  deficiency,  but  after 
three  estimations  I  perceived  from  the  difference  in  the  results 
that  my  product  was  not  homogeneous. 
Indeed,  in  treating  my  specimens  with  warm  water,  I  have 
been  enabled  to  separate  nine  new  alkaloids,  differing  in  their 
composition,  and  the  separation  of  which  may  be  effected  by 
turning  to  account  their  difference  of  solubility  in  warm  water 
and  the  time  which  they  require  for  crystallizing  during  the 
cooling  of  the  liquor.  It  is  probable  that  by  continuing  my 
researches,  I  should  have  obtained  a  still  greater  number  of 
distinct  bodies.  In  order  to  establish  to  a  certainty  the  exist- 
ence of  each  of  these  bases,  they  were  all  analyzed  twice,  and 
the  second  analysis  was  made  with  a  product  recrystallized  after 
the  first. 
The  concordance  of  the  two  results  proved  to  me  the  homo- 
geneousness  of  the  matter. 
