Seeds of the Croton Tiglium. 67 



Digesting sulphuric ether upon 100 parts of the bruised 

 seeds, throwing the whole upon a filter, covering it closely 

 during the process of filtration, and washing the residuum with 

 a sufficient quantity of ether, it was found to weigh 40 parts, 60 

 having been dissolved. By this process from 300 grains of the 

 seeds, from which if 102 grains are deducted for the shells, there 

 are left 198 grains of the kernels, I obtained upwards of two drams 

 by measure of an oil which possessed all the qualities, as to taste 

 and medicinal efficacy, which the purchased specimen contained. 



It cannot be doubted that the oil thus prepared must be as 

 genuine as that procured by torrefaction and expression of the 

 seeds, as practised in India ; and in some respects, perhaps, it 

 may be preferable, as tending less to occasion a decomposition 

 of the active ingredients of the seeds, by the heat applied to 

 effiset the separation of the oily portion from the farinaceous 

 part. A circumstance of this kind may be the cause of a con- 

 siderable difference in the quality of two specimens of the oil 

 which I have seen, in which the colour and fluidity are not the 

 same, besides a difference in their relative strength as purga- 

 tives, without supposing die existence of any fraud on the part 

 of those persons who have it for sale. 



To determine more accurately than by any of the former 

 experiments, the relative proportion of the acrid purgative prin- 

 ciple to the fixed oil, it seemed necessary to adopt the following 

 plan. From the first, compared with the second experiment 

 with alcohol, it was remarked that heat rendered more of the 

 oil soluble than when the fluid was cold; and it is obvious 

 that the apparent quantity of oil must have been diminished by 

 that portion which the alcohol was able to dissolve at the ordi- 

 nary temperature of the atmosphere. Using a weaker alcohol, 

 of sp. gr. .834, into which there was poured a quantity of olive 

 oil, to which the insoluble part of the croton oil bears the 

 strongest resemblance, agitating, besides heating them, toge- 

 ther, that the alcohol might become saturated with the oil ; 

 upon 40 grains, (or 84 drops) of the oil, which had been ex- 

 tracted from the seeds by ether, this alcoholic solution of oil 

 was poured in successive quantities. A bright yellow-coloured 



F2 



