PRESENCE    OF  GLUCOSE  IN   OPIUM,  ETC. 
69 
ON  THE  PREPARATION  OF  INULIN. 
(Translated  by  J.  M.  Maisch.) 
C.  J.  Thirault  (Journ.  de  Pharm.  ct  de  Chim.  3  Se>.  xxv.  205) 
remarks  on  that  subject  the  following  : 
"  It  is  difficult  to  obtain  Inulin  perfectly  white  and  in  any 
considerable  quantity.  By  heating  elecampane  with  boiling 
water,  concentrating  the  liquor  by  evaporation  to  separate  the 
inulm,  and  treating  it  several  times  with  charcoal,  it  may  be  ob- 
tained sufficiently  white,  but  charcoal  absorbs  a  considerable 
quantity  of  it." 
Much  easier  it  may  be  isolated  in  the  following  way :  Ele- 
campane is  exhausted  by  displacement  with  boiling  water  in  or- 
der to  obtain  a  saturated  solution  and  to  shorten  the  evapora- 
tion. After  sufficient  concentration,  the  double  volume  of  alco- 
hol of  81°  (alcoholmeter)  is  added,  precipitating  the  inulin  nearly 
white.  If  this  be  dissolved  in  a  little  distilled  water,  the  liquor 
treated  with  a  small  quantity  of  washed  animal  charcoal,  and 
again  mixed  with  double  its  volume  of  alcohol  of  81°,  a  white 
precipitate  of  inulin  is  obtained,  which,  being  impregnated  with 
alcohol,  will  dry  in  a  short  time. 
|  This  method  is,  notwithstanding  the  use  of  alcohol,  a  profitable 
one,  the  alcohol  not  being  lost,  but  becoming  merely  diluted. — 
Erdmanns  Journal  lxii.,  253. 
ON  THE  PRESENCE  OF  GLUCOSE  IN  OPIUM,  LACTUCARIUM, 
THRIDACE,    AND  IN    THE  VEGETABLE    KINGDOM    IN  GE- 
NERAL.    Ry  Magnes  Lahens,  Pharmaceutist  of  Toulouse. 
The  author,  in  the  course  of  an  investigation  into  the  compo- 
sition of  commercial  opium,  met  with  Landerer's  statement  that 
glucose  is  often  found  in  that  drug,  and  is  due  to  the  grape  juice 
employed  by  the  Orientals  to  adulterate  it,  as  he  had  himself 
witnessed. 
Desiring  to  ascertain  if  certain  specimens  of  opium  in -his  pos- 
session likewise  contained  sugar,  he  submitted  fourteen  samples 
to  the  test  by  Barreswil's  method,  and  detected  it  in  all  of  them. 
He  could  not  believe  that  they  were  sophisticated,  especially 
