194 THE ANALYST. TOXICOLOGICAL ANALYSIS. Differentiation of Human Blood from the Blood of Animals. De Nobele. (Ann. SOC. Ned. de Ghent, 1901, 331; through Ann. de Chim. anal., 1902, vii., 150-152.)-The author has studied the method devised by Wassermann and Schiitze, who found that the serum of a rabbit or a mouse into which human serum had been injected gave a precipitate when mixed with the serum of human blood. He has proved that the injection of different human excreted liquids, such as the sera of milk, saliva, pus, albuminous urine, or ascitic fluid, has also the same effectTHE ANALYST, 195 upon the serum of the animal, which in each case gives a precipitate with human blood, but not with the blood of different animals. Thus, stains on linen from several days to two months in age, when treated with very dilute sodium chloride solution or with sodium hydroxide solution (0.1 per cent.), gave solutions yielding a precipitate with the injected serum.No reaction was given, however, by a stain nine years old. To determine the action of heat, drops of blood were heated on glass to tempera- tures of 75", loo", and 125' C., and the dried residues dissolved in sodium chloride solution and tested. Reactions were obtained with the blood dried at the lower temperatures, but not with that dried at 125" C. Attempts to prepare a specific serum by feeding the animal with human serum instead of by inoculation were unsuccessful. Corin (Ann. Soc. Med. Zegal. Belg., i . [13]) has found that the active agent in the injected serum is a paraglobulin, which can be precipitated with magnesium sulphate.The precipitate, collected on a filter and dried, can be kept unaltered, and when required can be redissolved. According to the author, the serum can also be evaporated under reduced pressure without losing its activity. The dried residue is preserved in sealed tubes in the dark, and has been found to react as strongly as the original liquid after six months (cf. ANALYST, xxvii., 157). Reactions were also obtained with decomposed human blood. C. A. M. Comparison of the Stas-Otto and Kippenberger Methods of detecting Alkaloids in Toxicology. J. Weiss. (Miinch. medicin. Wochenschr., 1902, xlix., 367 ; through Chem. Zeit. Rep., 1902, 100.)-The author has carried out experiments on the detection of strychnine, morphine, and atropine in nutritive liquors, in the stomachs and intestines of corpses, and in whole corpses, soon after death and also a considerable time after burial. I n all cases the yield of alkaloid was greater by the Stas-Otto than by the Kippenberger process. It is therefore better to employ the former for the isolation of the substance, and only to use Kippenberger's method with iodine and potassium iodide for quantitative purposes. F. H. L.