464? Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



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year 1831, M..Thubeuf stated that he had extracted a new substance 

 from sarsaparilla to which he gave the name of salseparine, and last- 

 ly, M. Batka, a German chemist, towards the end of the year 1833, 

 described an acid which he called parillinic acid. The question to 

 be resolved is, are these four substances four new bodies, or are they 

 merely one and the same principle obtained by different methods ? 



A considerable quantity of parilline, smilacine, salseparine, and 

 parillinic acid was prepared ; following the process of M. Palotta, 

 very fine parilline was obtained, but the smilacine of M. Folchi was 

 not so easily prepared ; and he was undoubtedly mistaken in saying 

 that an appreciable quantity of smilacine might be obtained by ma- 

 cerating in water one ounce of the pith of sarsaparilla, treating the 

 solution with animal charcoal, and evaporating. It is, according to 

 M. Poggiale, impossible to extract from one ounce of the pith, by 

 means of water, the smallest portion of smilacine; the method 

 adopted by him was to treat the pith with alcohol and charcoal, 

 and the product possessed all the properties of parilline. Although 

 M. Thubeuf did not publish his mode of preparing salseparine, the 

 process was known to be that of making an alcoholic solution of sar- 

 saparilla, treating this with animal charcoal and crystallizing it ■ the 

 substance obtained possessed no properties differing from those of 

 parilline, as will presently be proved. Parillinic acid was also pre- 

 pared according to the directions of M. Batka. 



These four substances are all white, inodorous, and when de- 

 prived of water, without taste. They are very bitter and nauseous 

 to the taste when dissolved in water or alcohol. They are heavier 

 than water; insoluble in cold, but slightly soluble in boiling, water; 

 very soluble in boiling alcohol, less so in cold; boiling aether dissolves 

 them all; the volatile oils take them up perfectly; they are less so- 

 luble in the fixed oils; they exert but slight action on turmeric pa- 

 per, none on litmus, and turn the syrup of violets green. The}' are 

 all decomposed in the same manner by heat, leaving an extremely 

 light charcoal possessing a metallic lustre. They all crystallize in 

 radiated acicular crystals when an alcoholic solution is carefully 

 evaporated. 



The substance obtained by M. Batka is not an acid ; it is true it 

 reddens litmus paper, but this property is owing to a small quantity 

 of muriatic acid which it retains: if, however, this supposed acid is 

 washed seven or eight times with water, it will no longer exert any 

 action on the litmus paper. M. Poggiale attaches the greatest im- 

 portance to the analyses of these substances, which he states he has 

 performed with the greatest care. 



Analysis of Salseparine. 



Salseparine, dried at 248° Fahr. in a stove and analysed by M. 

 Liebig's apparatus, gave the following results. 



100- 97- 100- 



