ON  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  CASTOR  OIL. 
99 
The  same  experiments  may  be  made  with  muriate  of  quinine, 
on  dissolving  it  in  dilute  muriatic  acid ;  in  this  case  the  crystals 
generally  appear  slowly. 
For  medical  use  none  of  the  salts  of  quinine  can  be  used  in 
mixtures  together  with  any  of  the  acetates.  But  should  such  a 
combination  be  desirable,  it  may  be  done  by  dissolving  the  pure 
alkaloid  or  the  acetate  of  quinine  in  acetic  acid,  which  then  will 
be  compatible  with  any  of  the  soluble  acetates,  as  well  as  with 
the  chlorides  and  sulphates  of  the  alkalies  and  alkaline  earths. 
Although  the  mixture  of  solutions  of  sulphate  of  cinchonine 
and  the  acetates  of  the  alkalies  does  not  produce  any  precipitate, 
still  it  would  be  injudicious  perhaps  to  prescribe  such  a  one,  as 
they  also  decompose  each  other,  forming  a  soluble  acetate  of  cin- 
chonine and  sulphate  of  the  alkali,  the  quantity  of  which  will  be 
increased  by  the  acid  necessary  for  obtaining  the  solution  of  the 
sulphate  of  cinchonine.  Also  in  this  case  it  would  be  advisable 
to  produce  first  a  solution  of  acetate  of  cinchonine. 
Philadelphia,  January  1855. 
ON  THE  CULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURE  OF  CASTOR  OIL  IN 
ILLINOIS  AND  ST.  LOUIS. 
By  William  Procter  Jr. 
About  the  middle  of  last  year,  the  Editor  of  this  Journal,  de- 
sirous of  learning  something  more  definite  in  regard  to  the  cas- 
tor oil  manufacture  and  trade  than  was  to  be  obtained  from 
mercantile  sources,  addressed  a  letter  to  Mr.  Guilford  T.  Cham- 
berlain, Pharmaceutist  of  St.  Louis,  requesting  the  fullest  in- 
formation his  favorable  position  would  enable  him  to  procure, 
both  as  regarded  the  culture  of  the  ricinus  in  Illinois,  and  the 
manufacture  of  the  oil  there  and  in  St  Louis,  which  has  been 
responded  to  in  a  letter  recently  received,  from  which  the  fol- 
lowing facts  relating  to  the  subject  as  regards  St.  Louis  and 
Illinois  have  been  derived. 
Southern  Illinois  is  the  source  from  whence  all  the  beans  are 
brought  that  are  sold  or  manufactured  in  St.  Louis.  The  ground  is 
prepared  as  for  other  crops,  and  when  there  is  no  longer  any  dan- 
ger from  the  Spring  frosts,  the  seeds  are  planted  in  hills  and 
rows,  much  in  the  manner  of  planting  Indian  corn,  with  the  ex- 
