85 ON THE PHYTOLACCA. 



Stalk yields If a piece of the stalk be exposed to the flame of a cnn- 



^° ^* die, it is reduced to a reticjJjir texture, exhibiting, when 



viewed by a lens, a series of longitudinal filaments connected 

 by cross meshes. If t'nis be a^uin ejcposed to the flame, it 

 swells up, melts, and the result is potiash. 



14 oz. troy in- Four woody stalks of this plant weighed wli,en dry 440 



cmera e . graiti. [14 oz. troy]. These I burned in an iron crucible; 

 and when it began to grow red hot, the matter assumed a 

 _ paisty consistence, and ended by fusing, accompanied with 

 a swelling up occasioned by the evolution of hidrogen gas, 

 ^vhich burnt with detonation qs it burst from the melted 

 matter. When the crucible was cold, it contained a hard 

 brown substance, that had a caustic taste. 



Coal lixiviated. ' As it was impossible to get this saline residuum complete- 

 ly out of the crucible, I boiled water in it, and thus easily 

 separated it, great part of it being dissolved. The liquor 



432 grs. of salt, filtered and evaporated to dryness left 28 gram. [432 gr.] of 

 a saline substance, which I saturated with pure nitric acid. 

 The liquor deposited a blue precipitate, which weighed 

 4 decig. [6 gr.]. This precipitate was not altered by mu- 

 riatic acid, and appeared to me to be prussian blue with a 



A little silex. little silex. 



In the solution saturated with nitric acid pure nitrate of 



strontian occasioned no precipitate: but nitrate of silver 



threw down some muriate of silver, which weighed when 



8-6 grs. of mu- dry 22 dec. [34 gr.[. answering to 25 cent. [8| grs.] of mu- 

 riatic acid. • «.• * 1 

 riatic acid. 



After having separated a little silver from tlie liquor by 



means of sulphuretted hidrogen, I filtered, and evaporated 



to dryness. Thus I obtained 33 gram. [510 gis.] of nitrate 



270 grs. of pot- of potash ; containing 17*5 gram. [270 grs.] of pure potash 



^^^' according to the analysis of Thenard. These 33 gram, of 



potash contained no foreign matter, for they crystallized to 



the last particle. 



6 grs. of silex. The part insoluble in water being treated with nitric acid, 



4 decig. [6 gr.] of silex were left. Carbonate of potash 



110, grs. of tbrew down from the nitiic solution 13 gram. [200 grs.] of 



^''"^' carbonate of lime; and the filtered liquor, being boiled, let . 



A little magnc- fall a few decigr. of carbonate of magnesia And lime. It is 



sia and lime, probable, however, that the lime, which constitutes the 



