( 689°) 
saliva-secretion. Some people complain of head-ache after chewing 
the root.” 
He has examined the effect on fishes by putting goldfishes into a 
decoction of the roots of 1: 2500; after 3 min. they were lying at 
the bottom, intoxicated, breathing feebly, and they died though put 
in fresh water. In a decoction 1 : 25000 complete narcosis manifested 
itself within 5 minutes. The bark of the root appeared to be more 
poisonous still; in a decoction 1: 300000 small sawah-tishes *) were 
intoxicated within */, hour and they died within 24 hours. Gresnorr *) 
succeeded in extracting from the roots of Derris elliptica its active 
element derridl, and found that goldfishes died within half an hour 
in a solution 1 : 5.000.000, after a period of intoxication. He says*): 
“It seems more likely to me that derrid has a specific influence on 
the central nervous system of fishes than that it acts as a poison on 
respiration by stopping the taking up of O or the giving up of CO, in 
the gills’, and he thinks it will be very difficult to examine its 
effects on other animals than fishes, on account of its sparing solubility. 
VAN SILLEVOLDT has chosen derrid as the subject for his dissertation, 
which he has worked out in the pharmaceutical laboratory at Leyden ‘). 
For the preparation of derrid he adopted Grrsnorr’s method with 
some alterations for the purification. Now as for my experiments | 
have employed the preparation used by VAN SILLEVOLDT, which Prof. 
Wisman was so kind as to place at my disposal; his way of proceeding 
will be mentioned here: The squashed roots were extracted with 
water, pressed and dried; then they were extracted with alcohol 
96°/,. This extract was evaporated with a little water down to a 
small volume and cooled, after which there appeared at the bottom 
of the vessel a resinous substance, which was washed with water 
and dried; this was raw derrid. This was purified by removing the 
greasy elements with petroleum-ether and by shaking the insoluble 
derrid with */,°/, KOH; then it was dissolved in ether and precipitated 
again with petroleum-ether. The first precipitations were strongly 
coloured and erystalline; afterwards a white amorphous substance 
appeared. When filtered, this substance was dissolved in ether, and 
while heated, petroleum-ether was added to it; then it was cooled 
down and a yellowish-white matter was formed, pure derrid. 
This derrid is insoluble in water; very sparingly soluble in petroleum- 
ether; very easily in chloroform; easily in ether, alcohol, acetic acid, 
benzene, acetone, carbon disulphide and ethyl acetate. Very little can 
1) A sawan is an Indian watered ricefield. 
2) Gresniorr, Med. XXV. Den Haag, 1898, p. 49. 
5) Gresnorr, le p. 17. 
4) Van Suzrevorprt, Ueber das Derrid und das Pachyrhizid. Diss. Marburg 1399. 
