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ing, as showing the intention of the author: atoms, molecules, atomicity, valence, affinity, rests, acids, bases, salts, etc. A few headings are followed by blank spaces for notes by the student. The topics have not been arranged in any particular manner, but follow one another without any apparent order or relation. However the little book is a useful one in the direction indicated above; and we believe the author's hope to be well founded “that some of the subjects considered may prove of interest and of value to those students who study, not to pass, but to know."

Third annual Report of the State Board of Health and Vital Statistics of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Transmitted to the Governor, December 3, 1887. Harrisburg, 8vo. Pp. 338.

This report has been published much more rapidly than its predecessor, which was noticed in our last number. Though the volume now before us is smaller, it has been prepared with like care, and contains some valuable contributions to sanitary science.

Dose and Price Labels of all the drugs and preparations of the United States Pharmacopoeia of 1880, together with many unofficinal articles that are frequently called for as medicines or used in the arts. With an appendix containing a description of many of the new remedies lately introduced. For the use of Pharmacists, Physicians and Students. By C. L. Lochman. Third edition, revised and enlarged. Philadelphia: Dunlap & Clarke. 1889. Pp. 201.

The appearance of the third edition proves the practical utility of these labels, as we indicated on noticing the previous editions. The present one differs from the second edition mainly in the correction of a few typographical errors, and in making the formulas for unofficinal preparations correspond with those of the National Formulary, without, however, giving labels for all of the latter. More than forty new or recently re-introduced remedies-in addition to those contained in the second edition-are briefly described in the appendix.

Fitting Glasses.-A Manual for the use of Opticians, Jewelers, Druggists and others who sell glasses. Philadelphia: Jas. W. Queen & Co. 8 vo., pp. 96. The object of the pamphlet is to give instruction as to the proper methods of fitting spectacles. The descriptions and instructions appear to be clear and precise, so as to be readily understood by intelligent persons, and the 47 illustrations serve materially in explaining the various details.

Proceedings of the National Wholesale Druggists Association, in convention at Saratoga, September 11-14, 1888. Geo. B. Bower, official stenographer. Minneapolis, 1888. 8vo. pp. 240.

The volume contains, as usual, the minutes, discussions, reports, etc., and as a frontispiece has a very good portrait of the present president, Mr. Geo. A. Kelly, of Pittsburg.

THE AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF PHARMACY.

MARCH, 1889.

ASCLEPIAS CORNUTI AND ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA. BY FRED. B. QUACKENBUSII.

Read at the Pharmaceutical Meeting, February 19.

An analysis of Asclepias tuberosa was made in 1861 by Elam Rhoads,' who announced the presence of a peculiar principle possessing the taste of the root which he obtained from a concentrated infusion of the drug by precipitation with tannic acid.

In 1881, W. L. Hinchman2 observed in Asclepias Cornuti a crystalline principle, but obtained it in a different manner. He treated the drug with petroleum ether, evaporated spontaneously and treated the residue with 95 per cent. alcohol from which yellow wart-like crystals were deposited which after purification were white. List, in 1849, also separated a crystalline principle from the milk juice by exhausting the congealed juice with ether.

The Asclepias Cornuti used in the following analysis was collected and carefully dried by Prof. Henry Trimble during the summer of 1888.

A complete analysis of the Ascelepias tuberosa was not made, but it was examined for the purpose of learning if the crystalline principle which was found in the Asclepias Cornuti also existed in it.

Fifty grams of the powdered root were macerated with petroleum ether in several portions. This solution showed a distinct fluorescence similar to that observed in petrolatum, and yielded on evaporation 1.44 per cent. of a peculiar residue supposed to consist of caoutchouc, resin and volatile oil to the extent of 2 per cent. This residue was insol

'AMER. JOUR. PHAR., 1861, p. 493.

AMER. JOUR. PHAR., 1881, p. 433.

uble in 95 per cent. alcohol, slightly soluble in absolute alcohol, and very soluble in ether and chloroform.

The residue of the drug was next treated with stronger ether in the same manner as with the petroleum ether. This ethereal solution gave the same fluorescence as the petroleum ether and yielded on evaporation 1.3 per cent. of residue. This residue was treated successively with water, water containing 1 per cent. hydrochloric acid and with water made slightly alkaline with potassium hydrate. The former gave no response to tests for glucosides, alkaloids or gallic acid. The second, which gave a distinct test for glucosides, on being neutralized with sodium hydrate deposited a flocculent precipitate. This solution containing the precipitate was agitated with stronger ether, which on spontaneous evaporation deposited a small quantity of crystals, which upon recrystallization assumed the form shown in Fig. A.

The alkaline solution gave negative tests as in the case of the aqueous solution.

One hundred grams of the powdered root of Asclepias tuberosa were macerated in petroleum ether and stronger ether and the residue from the ether solution treated with acidulated water as in the case of the Asclepias Cornuti. From this solution crystals were obtained by agitation with ether and evaporation of the ethereal solution. These crystals upon recrystallization from ether had the form as shown in Fig. B.

The residue of the Asclepias Cornuti was next exhausted with absolute alcohol. This alcoholic solution also showed the fluorescence as noted in the other solvents and yielded 3.58 per cent. of residue, which was completely soluble in water, and was taken up in that liquid and the tests applied for tannin and alkaloids with negative results. It, however, responded to the tests for glucosides. The aqueous solution was then agitated with petroleum ether, ether and chloroform. The ether and chloroform solutions both deposited crystals which recrystallized from ether in the form shown in Fig. C. The aqueous solution after treatment as stated above was made alkaline

. Jour. Pharm

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and again agitated with the same solvents. I obtained no crystals from these solutions, but the petroleum ether gave a peculiar residue, having an odor analogous to that of musk, and which is probably the odorous principle observed by Rhoads in 1861.

The residue of the Asclepias tuberosa was next exhausted with absolute alcohol, and the alcoholic solution treated in the same manner as was the Asclepias Cornuti. The aqueous solution of the residue upon agitation with ether and evaporation of the ethereal solution yielded crystals which, on redissolving in ether, crystallized from that liquid in the form shown in Fig. D. The crystals obtained from both the ether and alcohol appear to be one and the same compound. The

W

crystals all reduced Fehling's solution and gave the following color reactions:

(a) With sulphuric acid they gave first a brown color, gradually changing to a blackish brown.

(b) With sulphuric acid and bichromate potassium they assumed at first a deep brown color, but on allowing to stand thirty minutes a purple color was produced which was very distinct in thin layers.

(c) Nitric acid after some time produced a slight pinkish color. (d) Hydrochloric acid and ferric chloride developed no change of color.

This principle exists in the drug in very small quantities, only enough being obtained from one hundred grams of the drug to make the tests as given above.

The residue of the Asclepias Cornuti was then treated successively with water, a weak alkaline solution, a 1 per cent. acid solution and chlorine water.

In these solutions were found, by the usual methods of detection and estimation, sugar, 5·16 per cent., of which 3.29 per cent. was saccharose. Mucilage, 3.6 per cent. ; trace of dextrin; albuminoids, 2·4 per cent.; calcium oxalate, 2.75 per cent.; coloring matter, 8.92 per

cent.

The drug contained 7.16 per cent. of moisture and 5.35 per cent. of

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ash. The drug, after exhausting with all the solvents, was found to consist of 49.86 per cent. of cellulin and lignin.

The results of the analysis may be summed up as follows:

In addition to the above, starch was also found, but was not estimated.

This drug contains many of the usual plant constituents, also caoutchouc, and a crystalline glucoside having a slightly bitter taste, and also resembling the taste of the root. This principle is probably identical with the bitter principle observed by Hinchman in 1881, and possibly the same principle observed by Rhoads in 1861. The fluorescence noted in the alcoholic and ethereal solutions I believe to be due to the glucoside found, although I did not obtain it in sufficient quantity to fully establish this fact.

Rhoads and Hinchman also announced the presence of tannin, but I was unable to verify their statement. It was not observed in the course of the regular analysis, and special tests with the powdered drug failed to confirm its presence.

Poisoning with oil of sassafras.— A case is related in the Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic, December 8, 1888, by Dr. L. M. Albright, when a teaspoonful of the oil was taken by a young man, producing hallucinations, vomiting, prostration, cold extremities, low pulse, somewhat dilated pupils and stupor. The treatment commenced two hours after taking the oil, consisted in rest, heat to the extremities, and egg-nog. The patient soon regained consciousness, and was ready for breakfast the next morning.