50-2 
account of its beautiful foliage and fragrant flowers (points of great use for*shade 
and honey), but also for its invaluable woed. Locust is well known for its great 
durability, even when thoroughly exposed, and is thus exceedingly valuable for 
fence-posts, railroad ties and supports for structures generally. 
Robinia is not mentioned in the U.S. Ph. It has a place, but is not officinal, 
in the Eclectic Materia Medica. 
PART USED AND PREPARATION.—The fresh bark of the young twigs is 
chopped and pounded to a pulp and weighed. Then two parts by weight of alco- 
hol are taken, the pulp mixed thoroughly with one-sixth part of it and the rest of 
the alcohol added. After having stirred the whole well it is poured into a well- 
stoppered bottle and allowed to stand eight days in a dark, cool place. The tinc- 
ture is then separated by straining and filtering. Thus prepared, it has a beautiful, 
clear, reddish-orange color by transmitted light, a dry, sweetish taste peculiar to 
the inner bark, and a decided acid reaction, 
CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS.—Robinin, C,,H,,O,,+Aq. This aromatic glu- 
coside bears great resemblance to guercetin, yielding as products of decomposition 
this body, and peculiar sugars. (Schorlemmer.) Robinin is found principally in the 
flowers; it forms fine, satiny, yellow needles, neutral and tasteless, losing water 
at 100° (212° F.), and fusing at 195° (383° F.). It is soluble in both water and 
alcohol. 
Robinic acid. This body was discovered in the roots by Reinsch, but after- 
wards doubted. Prof. Hlasiwetz (Chem. Gaz. Aug. 15, 1855), in his examination 
of the root, decided that the above body was Asparagine ; he obtained some two 
and a half ounces of this substance from thirty pounds of the root. The body 
answers to the following properties: Large, hard, refractive, octohedral crystals, 
colorless and constant upon recrystallization, and having a mawkish taste; they 
fuse when heated, giving off an ammoniacal odor. Tannin, and the usual plant 
constituents, have also been determined. 
PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION.—Robinia causes extreme nausea, profuse acid 
vomitings, fluid eructations and purging. These symptoms followed eating of the 
bark. <(Dr. A: R. Ball.) 
Dr. Shaw (Med. Times and Gazette, vol. i., p. 570) gives the (oflniviag effects 
noticed in a child who had eaten of the seeds: Inability to hold the head upright, 
nausea and attempts to vomit, with a tendency to syncope, when in an upright 
position ; voice, respiration and heart’s action feeble, as from exhaustion ; a pain- 
ful, paralytic condition of the extremities, which became shrunken on the fifth day. 
All the symptoms seemed like those produced by a long-continued diarrhcea, 
though in this case purging was not present. 
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE 50. 
1. Flower (somewhat enlarged ). 
2. Stamens. 
3. Pistil. 
4. Fruit. 
5. End of yore ‘branch j in pasbake Ithaca, ee — sath dias 
