290 COMPOSIT. 
hairs. The florets number from 3 to 5; they have in the bud — 
an ovoid corolla, glandular in its lower portion, a little longer 
than the ovary, which is destitute of pappus. Mahometan 
writers name several varieties of wormseed, but do not des- 
cribe them with any minuteness, It would seem then that we 
must be prepared to meet with slight differences in packages 
of the commercial article, but in any case the drug should 
have a powerful and agreeable odour resembling cajuput oil 
and camphor, and a bitter aromatic taste. 
Chemical composition.—Wormseed yields from1 to 2 per 
cent. of essential oil, having its characteristic smell and taste. 
The oil is slightly levogyrate, and chiefly consists of the liquid. 
C'°H'®0, accompanied by a small amount of hydrocarbon. 
The former has the odour of the drug, yet rather more agree- 
able; sp. gr. 0°913 at 20°C. It boils without decomposition at_ 
173° to 174°, but in presence of P?O% or P25 abundantly 
yields cymol. The latter had already been observed by Volckel _ 
(1854). under the name of cynene or cinene, yet he assigned — 
to it the formula ©*H°; Hirzel (1854) ‘ealled it cingebene.. 
The water which distils over carries with it volatile acids of the | 
fatty series, also angelic acid. se aed 
The substance to which the remarkable action of wormseed 
on the human body is duo, is Santonin, C'5H'8O03. It was 
discovered in 1830 by Kahler, an apothecary of Diisseldorf, 
. 
who-gave a very brief notico of it in the Archiv. der Pharmacie - 
(xxxiv., 318). Immediately afterwards, Augustus Alms, 4 
raggist’s assistant at Penzlin, in the Grand Duchy of Meck- 
Jenburg-Schwerin, knowing nothing of Kahler’s discovery; 
obtained the satie substance, and named it Santonin. Alms 
recommended it to the medical professon, pointing out that it is 
the anthelmiutic principle of wormsced. Santonin constitutes 
from 14 to 2 per cent. of the drug, 
extracted by milk of lime, for though not an acid, and but 
: but appears to diminish in — 
quantity very considerably as the flowers open. It iseasily ~ 
sparingly soluble in water even ata boiling heat, it is capable — 
of combining with bases. With lime it 
Sart ee 
: of we 
