Gleanings  in  Materia  Medica. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t      May,  1883. 
ihe  fresh  ones,  in  a  pint  of  milk  for  ten  minutes,  and  giving  the 
:strained  liquid  warm,  with  or  without  a  little  sugar.  From  his  ob.ser- 
vations,  Dr.  F.  J.  B.  Quinlan  regards  mullein  as  having  a  distinct 
weight-increasing  power  in  early  cases  of  pulmonary  consumption. 
The  hot  decoction  causes  a  comfortable  sensation,  and  when  patients 
i:ake  it  they  experience  a  physiological  want  for  it.  It  eases  phthisical 
<;ough,  some  patients  scarcely  requiring  cough  medicines  at  all.  Its 
power  of  checking  phthisical  looseness  is  very  marked,  and  it  also 
gives  great  relief  to  the  dyspnoea ;  but  for  phthisical  night  sweats  it 
is  utterly  useless.  In  advanced  cases  it  does  not  prevent  loss  of 
weight. 
The  decoction  in  milk  is  liked  by  the  patient ;  in  watery  infusion 
it  is  disagreeable,  and  the  expressed  juice  preserved  by  glycerin  still 
more  so. — Brit.  Med.  Jour. 
Assay  of  Nux  Vomica. — W.  R.  Dunstan  and  F.  W.  Short,  have 
found  the  following  process  a  satisfactory  one :  One  part  of  nux 
vomica  is  made  into  a  paste  with  a  solution  of  two  parts  of  crystallized 
sodium  carbonate,  the  mixture  dried  over  a  water-bath  and  powdered ; 
the  powder  equal  to  five  grams  of  nux  vomica  is  packed  in  a  suitable 
extraction  apparatus  and  exhausted  by  40  cc.  of  chloroform  containing 
25  per  cent,  of  alcohol.  This  is  usually  accomplished  in  one  or  two 
hours.  The  solution  thus  obtained  is  well  agitated  with  25  cc.  of  a 
10  per  cent,  solution  of  sulphuric  acid.  The  separation  of  the  chloro- 
form is  much  aided  by  gently  warming  the  mixture  on  a  water-bath. 
After  repeated  agitation  the  chloroform  is  separated  by  means  of  a 
funnel  and  again  shaken  with  15  cc.  of  dilute  sulphuric  acid.  The 
mixed  acid  solutions  from  which  all  the  chloroform  has  separated, 
should  be  filtered  if  necessary,  then  made  alkaline  with  ammonia  and 
shaken  with  25  cc.  of  chloroform  in  a  separating  funnel  ;  the  clear 
<3hloroform  solution  is  evaporated  over  a  water-bath  to  a  constant  weight 
and  then  weighed.  The  amount  of  mixed  alkaloids  thus  obtained  from 
^ve  samples  was  2*92,  3*57,  3*32,  3*38,  and  2*56  per  cent. — Phar. 
Jour,  and  Trans.,  1883,  Feb.  17,  pp.  665,  666. 
ColcMcine  has  been  obtained  well  crystallized  by  Dr.  S.  Zeisel.  In 
:a  communication  to  the  Austrian  Academy  of  Sciences  the  author 
states  that  the  crystals  were  obtained  from  a  chloroform  solution ;  the 
solvent  adhering  persistently  to  them,  it  is  not  impossible  that  the 
<;rystals  may  be  a  compound  with  chloroform,  though  their  aqueous 
solution  possesses  all  the  characteristic  properties  of  colchicine. 
