Am"oct!!i£2ara)'}  Gleanings  from  the  German  Jonrjials.  519 
'  cylic  acid.  A  solution  made  of  2  gm.  salol,  0-5  gm.  tannin  and  10 
gm.  ether  has  been  proposed  for  this  purpose,  but  A.  Suchomel 
doubts  if  such  a  coating  is  effective,  and  proposes  dipping  the  pills 
into  melted  salol  (it  melts  at  420  C),  contained  in  a  small  dish 
placed  upon  a  water-bath  for  a  few  minutes;  after  taking 
the  pills  off  the  needles  the  small  apertures  are  closed  by  applying  a 
little  melted  salol  with  a  small  brush.  The  coating  hardens  almost 
as  soon  as  taken  out  of  the  bath,  and  the  pills  have  the  appearance 
of  being  sugar-coated.  It  is  suggested  thatboli  containing  extracts 
of  pomegranate  or  male-fern,  koussin,  etc.,  be  coated  in  this  manner 
since  it  is  much  easier  accomplished  than  keratin-coating  ;  gelatin 
capsules  can  also  be  coated  by  immersion  in  the  melted  salol,  one- 
half  being  dipped,  withdrawn  and  then  the  other  half  dipped.  
Pilar.  Post,  1892,  899. 
Ipecacuanlia  assays. — The  following  criticism  of  the  present 
methods  of  extracting  emetine  was  arrived  at  after  a  considerable 
period  of  laboratory  observations  :  (1)  Zinoffsky's  method,  titrating 
with  Mayer's  reagent  gave  such  discordant  results  that  it  was  soon 
rejected.  (2a)  Fluckiger's  method,  extracting  the  powdered  root 
with  hot  chloroform-ammonia,  is  not  complete  after  prolonged 
~  extraction  (more  than  ten  hours),  and  gives  a  residue  which  is 
largely  contaminated  with  resinous  substances.  (2b)  The  method 
modified  by  Kremel,  by  dissolving  the  residue  in  dilute  acid,  liber- 
ating the  alkaloid  with  ammonia  and  extracting  with  chloroform 
gives  very  low  results  since  the  alkaloid  is  not  completely  removed 
(ten  extractions  with  30  cc.  chloroform  failing  to  remove  it  entirely), 
the  greater  the  excess  of  ammonia  used  the  greater  the  difficulty. 
Experiments  proved  that  if  pure  emetine  dissolved  in  water  be 
agitated  repeatedly  with  chloroform  the  fifth  extraction  was  found 
free  from  alkaloid;  hence,  the  deduction  that  the  root  contains  sub- 
stances soluble  in  chloroform,  which  later  prevent  the  removal  of 
emetine ;  or  again,  it  was  found  that  heat  rapidly  decomposed  the 
alkaloid ;  a  temperature  of  500  C.  turns  it  of  a  brown  color  and 
causes  it  to  react  differently  towards  reagents.  (3)  Kremel's 
assay,  drying  a  paste  made  of  root,  lime  and  water  and  extracting 
with  chloroform,  was  shown  to  give  low  results,  owing  to  the 
difficulty  in  extracting  (after  thirty  hours  the  residue  was  not 
exhausted)  and  that  the  residue  obtained  was  not  soluble  in  dilute 
