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Meiiyillltllilir=C6o H46 Oo^. In the leaves of Menyanthes 

 trifoliata. Prepare with little water a veiy concentrated aqueous 

 extract, and digest with roughly pounded boneblack, to absorb 

 the bitter substance. Wash the boneblack with cold water and 

 ■extract with boiling alcohol; filter hot, distil the solution, 

 evaporate the residue to ti-eacle consistence, and treat repeatedly 

 with ether, to remove a substance of rancid taste; dissolve the 

 extract in water; precipitate the solution with tannic acid; knead 

 the precipitate after it has become of a tough plasticity 

 repeatedly with pui-e water, dissolve in six times its weight of 

 alcohol, filter, mix the filtrate with carbonate of lead, add an 

 equal volume of water to the alcoholic solution, and heat over the 

 water-bath under continual stix'ring, until carbonic acid ceases to 

 be evolved. Treat the dry mass with hot alcohol, .shake the 

 filtrate with boneblack, filter, distil off the alcohol, thi-ow down 

 the M. from the residue with tannic acid, and proceed as before. — 

 White amorphous mass, yielding after trituration a pure-white 

 permanent powder; neutral, of a strong and pure bitter taste; 

 becomes soft at 60° to 65°, but is completely fused only at 

 115°; carl)onises in a higher temperature; dissolves somewhat 

 slowly in cold, readily in hot water and in alcohol ; not in ether, 

 but in concentrated sulphuric acid, with yellow-brown colour, 

 which by access of the air gradually changes to a violet colour, in 

 concentrated nitric acid with yellowish tinge, in concentrated hydro- 

 chloric acid colourless, in alkalies unaltered; is not preci}>itable 

 by metallic salts; changes on heating with diluted sulplumc or 

 hydrochloric acid into sugar and a volatile oil. The latter 

 (Menyanthol = CiG Hg O2 ) has an agreeable smell like bitter 

 almonds, and shows also in other respects similarity with oil of 

 bitter almonds; has a very burning taste; solidifies after a few days' 

 rest to a white crystalline mass, probably a new acid, called 

 provisionally menyanthic acid. 



Mercurialill. Volatile alkaloid of Mercurialis annua. Is ob- 

 tained by distilling the herb and fruits with lime and water, 

 saturating the distillate with sulphuric acid, evaporating to dryness, 

 shaking tlie salty mass with absolute alcohol, &c., and proceeding 

 as with coniin, to which also it greatly resembles. — Limpid, 

 colourless, oily liquid of a very penetrating narcotic odour, similar 

 to coniin and nicotin, of a strongly alkaline reaction; becomes 

 convei-ted at the air into a soft, resinous body ; begins to boil at 

 140°; yields with platinum-chloride a double salt in beautiful 

 mother-of-pearl-like laminte, combines also with carbonic acid. 



Metucetoilic Add = Propionic acid. 



[.lletacopaiviC Aci(l = C44 H34 O § . Discovered by E. G. Strauss 

 in the balsam of Maracaibo, a kind of coj)aiva-balsam, exported 

 from Columbia. Obtained by treating the balsam with soda-ley, 



