223 



prepare it, treat the fruit Avith alcohol, evaporate the tincture to 

 an extract, dilute with water to syi'up -consistence, shake with ether, 

 evaporate the ethei'eous solution and recrystallise from hot watei". 

 — Forms colourless, hard, quadrangular needles, has a pure but 

 faint vanilla-like odour, and a similar afterwards pungent taste ; 

 fuses at 82°, sublimes above 260°, but unaltered only when 

 i-apidly heated; dissolves in 198 parts cold and in 11 parts 

 boiling water, in 6 parts cold alcohol of 93 °/q, and in equal 

 parts boiling alcohol, in 6^ parts cold and in equal parts boiling 

 ether, also in volatile and fixed oils, the solutions in alcohol and 

 ether, having a slightly acid reaction; the aqueous solution 

 assumes a splendid dark-violet tinge with chloride of iron, and 

 yields a pale-yellow deposit with chloride of platinum, and a 

 yellowish-white one with acetate of lead, but is not affected by 

 the nitrates of the suboxyds of palladium and mercury, and of the 

 oxyds of silver. 



[To estimate the amount of V. acid in Vanilla, Tiemann and 

 Haarmann exhaust the finely-cut pods Avith ether, agitate the 

 ethereous tincture with a solution of bisulphite of soda, which 

 combines wdth the V. acid, and is decomposed by sulj)huric acid.] 



Varioltirilli Known to exist in Pertusaria communis. Ex- 

 haust this lichen with boiling alcohol, evaporate to honey-con- 

 sistence ; remove from it the orcin by means of water, treat with 

 ether and allow the latter to evapoi'ate, leaving a crystalline 

 remnant, which has to be freed from a soft resin by washing with 

 cold alcohol, and is then dissolved in boiling alcohol. On cooling, 

 long white needles are formed, which dissolve readily in alcohol 

 and in ether, fuse with a gentle heat, decomposing afterwards, and 

 are not altei'ed by alkalies or by acids. 



Vateria Tallow, obtained from the fruit of Vateria Indica. 

 White or yellow, fatty and waxlike to the touch, of a globularly 

 radiated fracture; of a faint, pleasant odour; tasteless; of 0.926 

 density; fuses at 36-^° 



Veg-etable Jlucilaji-e or simply Miiclla»'e=Ci2 Hio Oio. Under 



this, in a chemical sense, undefined name, certain matters are com- 

 prised, which difier from gum, and are obtained on treating various 

 vegetable substances with cold water, under the form of thickish, 

 turbid, ropy liquids. Prominently rich in it are various 

 seeds (from the orders of Labiatae, Lineae, Plantagineae, 

 Rosaceae, etc. ) ; but also leaves, stalks, barks, roots, for 

 instance, Asperifoliae, Malvaceae, Orchideae, Algae, etc. By 

 mixing with alcohol a liquid pi'epared as above with cold 

 water, and fi-eed, if necessary, from albumen by boiling and strain- 

 ing, the Mucilage immediately separates, but charged with no 

 inconsiderable quantities of lime-salts, which may be abstracted 



