18 ORD. IV. Aggregate. CEPHAELIS IPECACUANHA. 
dissolves in alcohol and ether: its taste is slightly bitter, it restores the blue 
of turnsole when reddened by an acid, and is soluble in all the acids, the 
acidity of which it diminishes, but without entirely destroying it. Like 
veratrine, it forms crystallizable saline compounds with acids. It may be 
precipitated from the combinations by the gall-nut, like the alkalies of the 
different species of Cinchona. 
M. M. Pelletier and Dumas have found the composition of pure emetine 
obtained from the Cephaélis emetica, to be as follows :-— 
Carbon! Siesqins le igerint, 6 92. fozg 64,57 . 
Azote! egs; sien addy bys econcsks 4,00 
Hydrogen: adi sxcovtheheosgies 7,77 
JORGEN: fonts ay fos eet - 22,95 
Emetine .. . 4 99,29 
Action of E'metine on the Animal System. This substance, given to dogs 
and cats to the extent of from half a grain to two or three grains, produced 
vomiting, followed sometimes by long protracted sleep ; but when adminis. 
tered to a greater extent, such as ten grains, it produced upon dogs con- 
tinued vomiting, accompanied by stupor; in which, the animal, instead of 
recovering, as in the other case, commonly died in. the course of twenty-four 
hours. On Snes Sones the cause of death was discovered to be a 
violent inflammation 0: pulmonary tissue, and of the mucous membrane 
of the intestinal canal, from the cardia to the anus,—phenomena, very ana- 
logous to those resulting from emetic tartar. Similar effects are produced, 
if the emetine be injected into the jugular vein, or absorbed from any part 
of the body. ; 
Emetine acts on man as it does on animals. In doses of two grains, taken 
on an empty stomach, it both vomits and purges, followed by a disposition 
to sleep. Sometimes half or a quarter of a grain will excite nausea and 
vomiting. In cases of disease, the action of emetine is perfectly analogous, 
in addition to which, however, it exerts beneficial effects on catarrhal af- 
fections, especially those of a chronic kind.* 
* ‘Geo Recherches Chimi 
ques et Physiologiques sur lTpecac. par M. M. Macend; 
et Pelletier, Paris, 1807 z = ae 
