394 
GLEANINGS  FROM  GERMAN  JOURNALS. 
ing  matter  enough  in  the  other  drugs  that  are  used  to  make  the 
tincture  a  dark  red  color.  I  do  not  use  any  saunders  in  mak- 
ing this  tincture,  and  always  have  a  beautiful  dark  preparation, 
and  prefer  it  to  our  officinal  formula.  I  believe  the  committee 
on  revision  would  do  well  to  drop  it  from  the  tincture  altogether, 
as  there  are  no  real  medicinal  properties  in  the  drug ;  and  where 
is  the  use  of  pouring  dye  stuffs  into  the  stomach  and  no  benefit 
to  be  derived  from  them  ?    Yours  respectfully, 
Geo.  W.  Kennedy. 
Pottsville,  Pa.,  July  21,  1870. 
GLEANINGS  FROM  GERMAN  JOURNALS. 
By  Dr.  Frederick  Hoffmann,  of  New  York. 
Contrihutio7is  to  the  Knowledge  of  the  Opium  Alkaloids. 
0.  Hesse,  well  known  by  his  elaborate  researches  on  the  cin- 
chona alkaloids,  has  published  in  the  Annal.  der  Chem.  &  Pharm. 
vol.  153,  p.  47,  the  results  of  a  series  of  researches  on  some  of 
the  alkaloids  of  opium,  especially  on  meconidine,  laudanine, 
codamine,  thebaicine  and  papaverine.  The  following  is  a  brief 
resume  of  the  author's  paper  : 
Meconidine — C20H23NO4 — forms  a  yellowish-brown,  diaphanic, 
amorphous  mass  which  melts  at  58°  C.  ;  it  is  readily  soluble  in 
alcohol,  ether,  chloroform,  benzene  and  acetone  ;  its  alcoholic 
solution  blues  red  litmus  paper  and  neutralizes  acids.  Being 
insoluble  in  water,  it  has  no  taste  ;  its  acidified  solution,  how- 
ever, tastes  bitter.  Strong  sulphuric  acid  dissolves  meconidine 
with  olive-green,  strong  nitric  acid  with  orange-red  color.  Me- 
conidine as  well  as  its  salts  are  unstable,  and  their  solutions 
readily  decompose,  especially  when  they  contain  acids. 
Laudanine — C20H25NO3 — crystallizes  in  small  anhydrous  color- 
less prisms  ;  it  melts  at  165°  C,  and  on  cooling  congeals  in  crys- 
tals; it  is  readily  soluble  in  benzene,  chloroform  and  boiling 
alcohol,  but  little  in  cold  alcohol  and  in  not  less  than  540  parts 
of  ether;  its  solutions  are  bitter.  With  ferric  chloride  they 
form  a  deep  green  precipitate.  Strong  nitric  acid  dissolves  lau- 
danine with  orange-red  color,  strong  sulphuric  acid  with  rose 
color ;  on  warming,  the  latter  solution  turns  dark  purple. 
