FUNGI. 633 



been separated from it, the formula of wliich, according to Will, 

 is^C^^H^^O*. Martius considers this to be the active prin- 

 ciple. Fleury {J. Fharm, Chim, (4) XXI,, 279 to 284) gives the 

 following result of an examination of the drug: — Five hundred 

 and eighty grams of the powdered fungus, not previously 

 dried, were exhausted successively with ether, alcohol, cold 

 water, boiling water, water acidulated with hydrochloric acid, 

 and water rendered alkaline with potash, and the resulting 

 solutions were examined ; 



1- The ether extracts a resin, and a body to which the name 

 of Agaric acid is given. The examination of several salts of 

 this acid yielded results so discordant that no definite formula 

 could be obtained, but the nearest approaches to accuracy lead 

 to the supposition that its formida may be C'^^H'^^O^ Efforts 

 made to determine the basicity of the acid were unsuccessful. 

 It is shown that the addition of the elements of water to the 

 resin represents the composition of the agaric acid. After heat- 

 ing with very dilute sulphuric acid, a substance is yielded which 

 reduces the cupro-potassic liquor. The agaric acid amounts to 

 about one-fifth of the weight of the fungus. 



2. The alcoholic solution has a very red colour, due appa- 

 rently to the air, and on evaporation yields a residue of the 

 consistence of hard wax, from which ether dissolves a resinous 

 tody soluble in alkaline liquids ; its reaction is acid, it is not 

 crystallizable, and it contains 1 '5 per cent, of nitrogen. It 

 combines with metallic oxides. The remainder behoves like a 

 ^esin; it is reddish, nitrogenizcd, fusible below 100^, forms 



-'iscous solutions with alkalies, and gelatinous precipitates with 

 ^ther bases. 



3. Cold water yields a red solution, which on concentration 

 deposits calcic and possibly also magnosic oxaTiate in microscopic 

 crystals, while the solution contains a brown resinous nitro- 

 genous body, considered to be identical with Boudier's viscosin. 



4. Boilino- water extracts a small quantity of a nitrogenous 

 substance. 



\ 



o 



111.-^80 



