AmjJu°ij^'is92arm*}  Gleanings  from  the  German  Journals.  373 
splitting  off  of  water  has  not  been  ascertained.  It  is  due  to  this 
decomposition  that  these  several  drugs  lose  their  pungency  upon 
drying;  it  made  considerable  difference  in  the  yield  of  the  camphor 
if  the  herbs  were  distilled  as  soon  as  gathered,  or  if  six  or  eight 
days  elapsed  before  doing  so.  Anemonin  is  colorless,  inodorous, 
tasteless,  of  neutral  reaction,  and  melts  at  15 2°  C;  in  the  melted 
state  it  has  a  burning  taste  and  produces  numbness  of  the  tongue  ; 
it  is  slightly  soluble  in  cold  water  and  alcohol,  easier  if  these 
solvents  are  hot — also  in  chloroform  and  fixed  oils,  but  not  in 
ether  ;  it  is  soluble,  with  yellow  color,  in  aqueous  alkalies  neutral- 
izing them  ;  it  is  volatile  when  boiled  with  water,  the  vapors  being 
quite  irritating  ;  it  readily  reduces  the  salts  of  the  noble  metals, 
also  Fehling's  solution.  It  has  the  formula  C10H8O4,  and  is  the 
anhydride  of  a  dibasic  acid  containing  an  additional  aldehyde  or 
ketone  group  ;  it  is  unsaturated,  uniting  with  four  atoms  of 
bromine;  heating  with,  acetic  anhydride  produces  an  isomer, 
isoanemonin.  Besides  the  constituents  mentioned,  there  were 
found  two  acids  in  these  herbs  :  Anemonic  acid,  C10H10O5,  a  dibasic 
acid  with  an  aldehyde  or  ketone-group,  can  be  made  by  boiling  an 
aqueous  solution  of  anemonin  with  lead  oxide  ;  it  forms  hard, 
white  needles,  melting  at  2100  C.  Anemoninic.  acid,  C10H12O6,  is 
also  dibasic,  and  results  by  warming  anemonin  with  dilute  acids, 
HO  or  H2S04,  also  with  bases  like  potassa  and  baryta;  it  forms 
a  pale,  brown  powder,  melting  at  1 1 6—  1 1 7 0  C. —  H.  Beckurts, 
Archiv  der  Phar m.,  1892,  182-206. 
Scopolamine. — The  alkaloid  hyoscine  which  has  heretofore  been 
considered  isomeric  with  atropine  and  hyoscyamine,  C17H23N03 
really  has  the  formula  C17H21N04,  and  is  identical  with  a  base  called 
scopolamine  by  Prof.  E.  Schmidt,  from  the  fact  that  it  was  first 
isolated  from  the  root  of  scopolia  atropoides;  this  is  not  the  only 
source  of  the  alkaloid,  since  it  occurs  in  considerable  quantity  in 
hyoscyamus  seeds  and  in  certain  duboisia-leaves,  in  small  quantity 
in  stramonium  seeds  and  in  belladonna  root.  Commercial  hyoscine 
preparations  were  found  to  consist  chiefly  of  the  salts  of  this  base. 
Scopolamine,  C17H21N04-|-H20,  permanent,  transparent  crystals, 
melting  at  590  C.  to  a  colorless  liquid  which,  upon  prolonged  stand- 
ing does  not  again  become  crystalline ;  the  crystals  kept  over 
sulphuric  acid  gradually  changed  to  an  amorphous,  glassy  mass, 
which  then  could  not  be  made  to  crystallize  again.    The  hydrobro- 
