B.—­The bruised hemlock seed is treated in a vacuum extractor with water acidulated with acetic acid, and the extract evaporated in vacuo to a sirupy consistence.  The sirup is treated with magnesia, and the coniine dissolved out by shaking up with ether.

The B method yields a less percentage of coniine than A, but of a better quality.

RECTIFICATION OF THE CRUDE CONIINE.

The solution of crude coniine in ether obtained by either of the above processes is evaporated over a water bath to remove the ether, mixed with dry potassium carbonate, and then submitted to fractional distillation from an air bath.  The portion distilling over at 168 deg.  C. to 169 deg.  C. is pure coniine, and represents 60 per cent. of the crude coniine.

Coniine thus prepared is a colorless oily liquid, volatile at the ordinary temperature, and has a specific gravity of 0.886.  At a temperature of 25 deg.C it absorbs water, which it gives up again upon heating.  It is soluble in 90 parts of water.  It is not altered by light.

The author has formed a number of salts from coniine thus prepared, and finds them all crystallizable and unaffected by light.—­Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft.—­Chem. and Druggist.

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STRONTIANITE.

Since it has been shown by Professor Scheibler, of Berlin, that strontium is the most powerful medium of extraction in sugar refining, owing to its capacity of combining with three parts of saccharate, the idea suggests itself that the same medium might be successfully employed in the arts, and form a most interesting subject of experiment for the chemist.

Hitherto native strontianite, that is, the 90 to 95 per cent. pure carbonate of strontium (not the celestine which frequently is mistaken by the term strontianite), has not been worked systematically in mines, but what used to be brought to the market was an inferior stone collected in various parts of Germany, chiefly in Westphalia, where it is found on the surface of the fields.  Little also has been collected in this manner, and necessarily the quality was subject to the greatest fluctuations.

By Dr. Scheibler’s important discovery, a new era has begun in the matter of strontianite.  Deposits of considerable importance have been opened in the Westphalian districts at a very great depth, and the supply of several 10,000 tons per annum seems to be secured, whereas only a short time ago it was not thought possible that more than a few hundred tons could in all be provided.—­Chemist and Druggist.

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PARANGI—­A NEWLY DESCRIBED DISEASE.

A peculiar contagious disease, called framboesia, or the yaws, has long been known to exist in Africa, the West Indies, and the northern parts of the British Islands.  It is chronic in character, and is distinguished by the development of raspberry-like tumors of granulation tissue on different parts of the body.