TESTING  FOR  STRYCHNIA,  BRUCIA,  ETC. 
549 
badoes  and  hepatic  aloes,  are  the  best ;  they  purge  efficiently, 
and  without  causing  those  intestinal  pains  which  always  accom- 
pany the  administration  of  vitreous  and  transparent  aloes,  such 
as  Socotrine  aloes,  Cape  aloes,  &c. 
Pure  aloetine  becomes  purgative  when  it  has  been  altered  by 
the  action  of  air  and  heat.  Associated  with  pulvis  ferri,  it  will 
probably  be  of  great  assistance  in  the  treatment  of  fevers. 
In  a  chemical  point  of  view  : — Aloetine  is  a  crystallisable  sub- 
stance formed  solely  of  carbon  and  oxygen.  It  may  be  obtained 
by  very  easy  processes,  but  only  with  the  juice  of  Socotrine 
aloes,  or  with  those  opaque  extracts  which  air  and  heat  have  not 
altered  so  as  to  render  all  their  crystals  amorphous. 
It  is  aloetine  which  gives,  by  the  treatment  with  chlorine,  the 
crystallisable  compounds  to  which  I  have  given  the  names  of 
chloralise  and  chloraloTle. 
London  Chemist,  from  Journal  de  Pharmacie,  April,  1856. 
TESTING  FOR  STRYCHNIA,  BRUCIA,  &c. 
By  Mr.  John  Horsley. 
I  beg  to  make  a  few  observations  in  reference  to  the  poison 
strychnia,  the  properties  and  effects  of  which  have  recently  been 
discussed  during  the  celebrated  trial  of  Palmer.  In  doing  this 
I  wish  to  be  understood  as  confining  myself  strictly  to  the  chemi- 
cal manipulation  of  strychnia. 
It  is  because  I  have  had  many  opportunities  of  noticing  the 
very  strong  affinity  which  exists  between  chromic  acid  and  strych- 
nia, that  I  propose  the  former  for  the  precipitation  of  the  poison 
in  preference  to  the  alkalies,  provided  always  that  the  solution 
to  be  operated  on  is  more  or  less  pure. 
Before  proceeding  further  in  this  matter  allow  me  to  premise 
that  at  your  last  meeting  I  presented  a  paper,  detailing  a  new 
method  of  testing  iodine,  as  well  as  for  manufacturing  it  from 
prepared  kelp  lyes  by  'precipitation  with  a  certain  test  liquor. 
But  as  it  would  have  been  inconvenient  for  me  to  have  attended 
the  Glasgow  meeting,  I  will  here  exhibit,  with  your  permission, 
a  sample  of  iodine  thus  prepared,  as  well  as  the  liquor  from  which 
it  was  precipitated,  and  the  test  liquor  used  for  that  purpose, 
I  may  observe  that  this  precipitating  liquor  is  composed  of  one 
