SUBSTANCES REPUTED MEDICINAL, 157 
When the bark, after being boiled with water and treated 
with dilute sulphuric acid, is exhausted with weak sodaley, the 
aromatic resin passes into solution, and may be separated by preci- 
pitation with hydrochloric acid, and purified by treatment with 
alcohol and water. It is brown-red, has a faint aromatic odour, 
tastes distinctly like nutmeg and sassafras, melts at 114°, dissolves 
easily in alcohol and in alkaline hydrates and carbonates, but with 
difficulty in ether and turpentine oil. The analysis of the resin 
gave numbers according to the formula C,, H;, O;. 
The ash, amounting to 3.64 per cent. of the air-dried bark, 
and 4.06 per cent. of the bark dried at 100°, was found by Zeyer 
to contain :— 
Sodium chloride st Re aeOws 
Potash (anhydrous) ... me sont 4a036 
Soda do. — ed ilar. (OsgSE 
Lime ner a ae ta 745-445 
Magnesia gk asd ik aaah 4a BON 
Alumina a ee He i (OFLOE 
Ferric oxide... sks pt pes 02098 
Manganic oxide aat was sets O44 7 
Sulphuric acid (anhydride) . ia «ede 
Phosphoric ey Fas vary gbslBG 
Silica 8 oon on veo eatQOO 
Carbonic bode - ae sxe: 11530.005 
Atherospermine. The solution filtered from the impure lead- 
precipitate, already said to have been obtained by N. Zeyer, 
yields, on addition of ammonia, a precipitate which, after washing 
and drying, digestion with alcohol, evaporation of the brown solu- 
tion, mixing of the remaining mass with hydrochloric acid, and 
precipitation with ammonia, yields crude atherospermine ; and by 
agitating this substance with carbon bisulphide, dissolving the 
mass left after evaporating off the carbon bisulphide in hydro- 
chloric acid, and again precipitating with ammonia, the a/herosperm- 
ine is obtained in the pure state.* 
* The bark, which had been boiled with water for the preparation of the tannic acid 
still retained a portion of the alkaloid, which was extracted therefrom by digestion 
with dilute sulphuric acid. 
