133 



Forms fine, white needles of silky lustre, or, wlien obtained from 

 tlie alcoholic solution and by slow evaporation, considerably long, 

 colourless, half-ti-anslucid, klinorhombic prisms, inodorous, slightly 

 bitter, in solution very bitter; loses at 120° its water and turns 

 opaque, fuses afterwards and becomes decomposed; dissolves in 

 1000 parts of cold and in 500 parts boiling water, in 30 parts 

 cold and in 20 parts boiling alcohol of 807o, with decidedly alka- 

 line reaction; not soluble in ether, but in 60 parts chloro- 

 form, also in amylalcohol ; most readily in dihited acids, in con- 

 centrated sulphuric acid yellowish, in concentrated nitric acid red 

 afterwards yellow, in concentrated sulphuric acid containing a 

 little nitric acid, violet-red; separates from iodic acid instantly 

 iodine with brown colour, blues the salts of oxyd of iron ; dissolves 

 in fixed caustic alkalies and iii alkaline eai'ths, little in ammonia ; 

 neutralises the acids completely. Its salts are for the most ])art 

 crystallisable, taste very bitter, dissolve in water and in alcohol, 

 not in amylalcohol, are only precipitable by tamiic acid when quite 

 neutral. 



[Moscliatin. See Ivain and Achillein. Contained, besides 

 achillein, in the alcoholic solution of the aqvieous extract. Dissolve 

 the flocculent mass, obtained by treating the alcoholic residue with 

 water in absolute alcohol, evaporate to dryness on the water-bath, 

 heat with water, and wash with cold water, until the mass becomes 

 brittle under water. — A slightly hygroscopic powder of aromatic, 

 bitter taste, soluble in absolute alcohol^ scarcely in water.] 



Moss-starcli = LicH ENiN. 



Mucilag'e= Vegetable Mucilage. 



Itluciu. Peculiar protein substance contained in crude gluten; 

 but the complete isolation of which has not been achieved yet. 

 See Gluten and Glutin. 



Mlldariu. Peculiar bitter substance of the root of Calotropis 

 gigantea and C. procera. Is obtained by treating the alcoholic 

 extract with water and evaporating the solution. — Light-brown, 

 pellucid, brittle, inodorous, of nauseous bitter taste, insoluble in 

 ether and in oils. The cold concentrated aqueous solution becomes 

 turbid when gently heated, gelatinises and splits up at last com- 

 pletely into water and a pitch-like coagulum which does not 

 redissolve on cooling, but does so slowly on addition of fresh 

 water. The alcoholic solution does not coagulate. 



MyCOSe = C12 Hn On + 2 HO. Peculiar kind of sugar of 

 ergot (the mycelium of Cordiceps purpurea). Precipitate the 

 aqueous extract with subacetate of lead; remove any lead from 

 the filtrate by means of sulphuret of hydrogen; evaporate to a 

 syrup consistence, and purify the crystals which will have formed 

 after some time by rinsing with alcohol and recrystallising in 



