With the infinite distribution of germs, and as they are always present in all places where any organic portions of vegetable or animal matter are undergoing decomposition, it becomes, under certain circumstances, exceedingly difficult, and at times even impossible, to trace the direct effect of these minute germs. The organism is exposed to the destructive action of the most minute creation; several changes in this case give to them the direct effect of the acting germs. The investigation of the chemist does not extend beyond the chemical changes; nevertheless these phenomena are directly explained by the microscope, without which, in the present case, the discovery of the cause would have remained unknown.--_Arch. der Pharm._, 214, 158. * * * * * NEW REACTION OF GLYCERINE. If two drops of phenic acid are diluted with three thousand to five thousand parts of water, a distinct blue color is produced by one drop of solution of perchloride of iron. The addition of six or eight drops of glycerine entirely removes the color, and if any glycerine was present in the liquid the reaction does not take place at all. By this test the presence of 1 per cent. of glycerine can be detected. It may be applied to the analysis of wines, beers, etc., but when there is much sugar, extractive or coloring matter, the test can only be applied after evaporating, dissolving the residue in alcohol and ether, evaporating again, and then redissolving in water. Alkaline solutions must be first acidulated.--_Pharm. Zeit. fuer Russ._ * * * * * LYCOPODINE. While the phanerogams or flowering plants annually contribute to the list of newly discovered alkaloids, with the exception of muscarine and amanitine, no alkaloid has as yet been definitely recognized among the cryptogams. Karl Boedeker, of Goettingen, has opened the road in this direction, and gives in a paper sent to Liebig's _Annalen der Chemie_, August 15, 1881, the following account of an alkaloid, which, from the name of the plant in which it occurs, he calls lycopodine. The plant yielding the alkaloid, _Lycopodium complanatum_, belongs to the group of angiospermous cryptogams. It is distributed throughout the whole of north and middle Europe, and contains the largest proportion of aluminum of any known plant. Its bitter taste led the author to suspect an alkaloid in it.