308 EUPEORBIACEjE, 



* 



about 20 per cent, of such substances. The same cLemist 

 further extracted 46-6 per cent, of fixed oil, 2'2 of sugar and 

 mucilage, besides 18 per cent, of cellulose. 



" Tuson, in 1864, by exhausting castor oil seeds with boiling 



• ■ * 



.^ ^ ^_ henamed 



He states that it crystallizes in rectangular prisms and tables, 

 which ,whert heated, fuse, and, upon cooling, solidify as a 



ystalline mass ; the crystals may even be sublimed. Kicimne 

 dissolves readily in water or alcohol, less freely in ether or 

 benzol. With mercmio chloride, it combines to form tufts of 

 silky crystals, sokible in water or alcohol. Werner (1869), on 

 repeating Tuson's process on SO lbs. of Italian castor oil seeds, 

 also obtained a crop of crystals, which in appearance and 

 solubility had many of the characters ascribed to ricinine, but 

 differed in the essential point that when incinerated they left a 

 residuum of magnesia. Werner regarded them as the mag- 

 nesium salt of a new acid. Tuson repudiates the suspicion that 

 ricinine may be identical with Werner^s n^agnesium compound. 

 E. S. Wayne of Cincinnati (1874) found in the leayea of 



Ricinus a substance apparently identical with Tuson^s ncinine ; 

 but he considers that it has no claim to be called an alkaloid, 



*'The testa of castor oil seeds afforded us 10'7 per cent- of 

 ash, one-tenth of which we found to consist of silica. The ash 

 of the kernel previously dried at 100 °0., amounts to only 3'5 

 per cent/' {Op, cit, 2nd Ed., p. 569.) 



and A, Griissner [Moniteitr Sclent.^ Ap. 1889) 



K, Hazura 



periments 



been hitherto supposed 



mixture of two isomeric acids of the composition C^^H^^O , 



which, 



acid, whilst the othei 

 acid* The proportion 

 2 of the latter. As 



acid, yields on oa^idation trio^tystearic 



ricinisoleic acid, yields isotrioxysteario 

 f these acids is about 1 of the former to 

 ao dioxystearic acid has been obtained 

 le liquid aoids of castor oil, it may be 



ed, castor oil 



is the only one which contains no oleine. ^^^^ 



