48 Notices respecting New Books. 
der, sift it, and afterwards mix it intimately and accurately with 
the abovementioned juice reduced by a well regulated evapora- 
tion to the consistence of a somewhat soft extract. The extracts 
procured in this manner and compared with those prepared ac- 
cording to Parmentier’s plan, and stil] more with that of Storck, 
operate with much greater energy, and besides have a uniform 
mass both in consistence and colour, and are not subject, if pre- 
pared with the necessary care, either to become mouldy, like 
those before mentioned, or to be in the smallest degree carbo- 
nized, as happens in using the method of Storck *. 
I shall now proceed to notice the spirituous extract obtained 
from what is commonly called vanilla, or the pod of an exotic ve- 
getable called by Murray Epidendrum vanilla. Since 1802 the 
excellent Professor Carminati had urged me to subject this drug to 
a chemical analysis, particularly as [ was occupied in taking from 
it a spirituous extract, he being desirous to add on the vanilla 
other observations to the numerous interesting medical experi- 
ments which he had undertaken in that and the succeeding years. 
This obliges me to relate the preparation and the result of it re- 
lative to the abovementioned spirituous extract, adding to them 
my own reflections. I placed six ounces of the pods of vanilla 
cut into very small pieces to digest four days in 108 ounces of 
alcohol. ‘The tincture which I extracted was of a reddish-brown 
colour, and had the same aromatic taste as the vanilla, After- 
wards, I subjected the extracted tincture to a careful distillation, 
until I had collected about two-thirds of the alcoholic liquor, which 
in taste and smell could scarcely be distinguished from pure al- 
cohol, although when mixed with water some very thin white 
flakes were separated. I afterwards filtered the liquor which re- 
mained after the distillation; it had a deep reddish-brown co- 
lour, and in both taste and smell it resembled vanilla itself, the 
taste was even somewhat piquant. Finally, I exposed this liquor 
to a mild and uniform evaporation, by the well regulated heat of 
a stove, until it was reduced to the consistence of a soft extract, 
which I found weighed an ounce anda half, The vanilla which 
had suffered the action of the alcohol, and which formed the re- 
siduum of the above-mentioned tincture, I determined to digest 
again for other eight days with the alcohol remaining after 
the distillation of the first tincture; and having subjected this 
second tincture to the same operation as the first, to obtain the 
above-mentioned extract, I drew from it $2ths of an ounce, or 
* The author here relates an instance of M. Germain, apothecary in chief 
to the French military hospital at Hamburgh and Altona in 1807, being to- 
tally ignorant of his process; and also that of his countryman Parmentier; 
with which the translator has thought it unnecessary to trouble the English’ 
reader, who is perhaps acquainted with many similar cases. 
468 
