398 
GLEANINGS   FROM  GERMAN  JOURNALS. 
hydrate.  The  aconitine  nitrate  crystallizes  in  well-defined  crys- 
tals ;  the  alkaloid  forms  only  exceedingly  small  and  indistinct 
crystalline  masses. 
3.  All  samples  of  aconitine  from  England  which  the  author 
examined  corresponded  in  their  above  deportment  with  German 
•aconitine,  except  one  sample  from  Hopkin  &  Williams,  which 
beside  being  bitter  was  very  acrid ;  therefore  Dr.  Fllickiger 
thinks  that  English  and  German  aconitine  at  present  are  iden- 
tical.* 
4.  There  is  an  alkaloid  entirely  different  from  aconitine,  and 
of  uncertain  derivation,  perhaps  from  aconite  tubers  (Bikh)  from 
Nepal  and  the  slopes  of  the  Himalaya.  Fllickiger  terms  this 
alkaloid  pseudaconitine ;  Schroff  called  it  English  or  Morson's 
aconitine;  Wiggers  proposed  the  name  Napellin ;  Fllickiger 
called  it  previously  Nepalin  ;  Ludwig,  acrakonitine. 
Pseudaconitine  does  not  soften  in  boiling  water,  tastes  acrid, 
not  bitter,  and  does  not  color  concentrated  hot  phosphoric  acid ; 
it  is  insoluble  in  water,  little  in  alcohol,  ether  and  chloroform, 
but  crystallizes  from  its  hot  saturated  solution  in  large  prisms. 
— Pliamiac.  Centralhalle^  1870,  24. 
Iodoform  as  a  Means  to  Detect  Alcohol. — A.  Lieben,  in  the 
Annal.  der  Chem.  &  Pharm.  1870,  Suppl.  Bd.  vii,  2,  describes  a 
method  of  detecting  ethyl  alcohol  by  the  formation  of  iodoform. 
In  the  simple  case  when  the  presence  of  alcohol  in  a  watery  so- 
lution has  to  be  determined,  the  sample  is  warmed  in  a  test  tube,  a 
few  drops  of  an  iodinized  potassium  iodide  solution  are  added, 
and  afterwards  a  few  drops  of  potassium  hydrate  solution.  If 
the  quantity  of  alcohol  is  not  too  small,  a  turbidity  results  by 
the  formation  of  microscopically  small  yellow  crystals  of  iodoform. 
Hager  finds  this  reaction  very  accurate,  and  states  that  it  de- 
tects alcohol  in  liquids  containing  but  l-2000th  after  about  one 
day's  standing.  The  crystals  are  remarkable  and  beautiful  by 
the  variety  of  their  star-shaped  arrangement.    Hager  suggests 
the  following  modus  operandi :  The  reagents  used  are  a  solution 
• 
*  The  variations  of  commercial  aconitine,  as  stated  by  Merk's  and 
Hiibsclimann's  researches,  are  given  in  my  Report  on  Progress  of  Phar- 
macy to  the  Amer.  Pharm.  Assoc.  in  the  Proceedings  of  1869,  p.  263. 
