Mr. Herinell on Elaterium. 533 



the ether. The resulting green extract weighed twenty-one 

 grains. It had the characters of a resin. 



The residue, not soluble in alcohol, weighed nearly forty 

 grains; boiled in distilled water, six grains were dissolved. 

 This solution was nearly without taste or colour. Alcohol pro- 

 duced in it a white precipitate ; solution of iodine, one of a deep 

 blue colour; and from the quantity of this blue precipitate, 

 I should judge the six grains to have been principally starch. 



Of the residue, insoluble in water and alcohol, after being 

 dried, twenty-five grains were burnt in a platinum crucible ; it 

 burnt like woody fibre, leaving five grains of earthy residue. 

 I ascertained that two ounces of cold ether dissolve about four 

 grains of the crystals : taking this, therefore, into account, 

 from one hundred grains of elaterium, forty-four grains of the 

 crystallizable substance, seventeen grains of green resin, six 

 grains of starch, twenty-seven grains of woody fibre, and seven 

 grains of earthy matter, had been obtained. 



The increase of weight here, I attribute to moisture remain- 

 ing in the crystals and resin, but principally in the latter, which 

 I was fearful of injuring by too much heat. 



The crystals are soluble in about five times their weight of 

 cold, and twice their weight of hot alcohol, from which they 

 again deposit in acicular tufts, very sparingly soluble in ether, 

 and nearly insoluble in water, and in dilute acids. Solutions 

 of acetate of lead, nitrate of silver, and sulphate of iron, were 

 not precipitated by the addition of a few drops of the alcoholic 

 solution ; the crystals fuse at a temperature between 300 

 and 400, and in the flame of a spirit-lamp burn, throwing off 

 a great quantity of carbon. So far as I have observed, these 

 crystals do not form neutral compounds with the acids ; they 

 may perhaps be considered as crystalline bitter principle. 

 What (if any) are the medical properties of these crystals, I 

 am not at present prepared to state. Analysis by oxide of cop- 

 per gave, as the ultimate elements of these crystals, 



Carbon 17 



Hydrogen 11 



Oxygen 18 



The green resin already mentioned, possesses all the pro- 

 perties of elaterium in a concentrated form. A tincture, made 

 in the proportion of three and a half grains to an ounce, by 



VOL. I. MAY, 1831. 2N 



