194 
Gleanings  in  Materia  Medica. 
/  Am.  Jour.  Pharm> 
i      April,  1883. 
eventually  in  its  death.  The  action  of  urine  is  thus  similar  to  that  of 
curare.  The  urine  of  vigorous  men  in  middle  life  possesses  the  strong- 
est action,  that  of  females  is  less  powerful,  and  that  of  aged  persons 
and  children  is  the  weakest.  Upon  mammals  the  toxic  action  is  very 
slight,  producing  with  these  at  the  most  but  transitory  depression,  and 
not  occasioning  lameness. — Ibid.,  No.  6,  1883,  p.  76,  from  Cen.  Blatt 
fur  Med.  Wiss.,  1882,  p.  929. 
Contributions  to  the  Knowledge  of  the  Pharmacological  Group  of 
Digitalin,  By  O.  Sclimiedeberg. — From  oleander  leaves  from  Tunis 
the  author  has  separated  as  active  constituents  the  so-called  neriantin^ 
or  oleander-digitalin,  and  oleandrin.  The  oleandrin  possesses  all  the 
properties  which  characterize  the  digitalin  group,  while  neriantin  is  to 
be  regarded  as  a  glucoside,  and  has  only  a  feeble  action.  The  author 
has  furthermore  isolated  from  the  North  American  Apocynum  canna- 
binum,  X.,  two  substances  which  belong  to  the  digitalin  group,  namely,, 
apocynin  and  apocynein.  The  former  has  a  violent  action,  similar  to 
oleandrin,  while  the  latter  is  a  glucoside,  and  of  much  more  feeble 
action.— /62d,  No.  14,  p.  204,  frj^m  ibid.,  1883,  p.  60. 
GLEANINGS  IN  MATERIA  MEDICA. 
By  the  Editor. 
Constituents  of  Tamarinds. — Carl  Mueller  examined  9  samples  of 
East  Indian  tamarinds  with  the  following  results : 
Seeds. 
Pulp  free  from  seeds. 
Dry  pulp. 
Water. 
Insolu- 
ble. 
Potass. 
Bitart. 
Tartaric 
acid. 
Citric 
acid. 
Potass. 
Bitart. 
Tartar^ 
acid. 
Highest  per  ct.,  38-0 
30-81 
20-2 
()-01 
8-80 
3-95 
8-25 
12-25. 
Lowest  per  ct.,  1*5 
21  -92 
12-2 
4-66 
5-29 
0-64 
6-21 
6-77 
Average  per  ct.,  13*9 
27-00 
16-2 
5-27 
6-63 
2-20 
7-20 
9-09 
The  author  found  very  small  quantities  of  malic  acid,  which  were 
calculated  as  citric  acid.  In  his  opinion,  tamarinds  should  not  con- 
tain more  seeds  than  10  per  cent,  of  their  weight ;  four  of  the  sam- 
ples contained  considerably  "less  (1*5,  2*4,  4*5,  6*0),  two  approached 
this  limit  (8' 7,  9*8),  and  three  exceeded  it  considerably  (20*6,  23*3, 
38-0).— P/iar.  Centralh.,  1882,  Nos.  49,  50. 
Constituents  of  Trifolium  pratense. — Fred.  Grazer  examined  the 
