306 Scientific Notices — Che/iiistrj/. [Oct. 



that already separated from the resin, and distilled with mag- 

 nesia to dryness. 



If the washing of the resin be well performed, it will retain no 

 sensible portion of the pungent principle, at least none will be 

 perceptible to the taste. 



The resin loses its green colour by being washed with the 

 acid, and assumes an ochre yellow colour. 



The distilled water, highly loaded with the pungent principle 

 of the daphne, has an odour which irritates the nostrils violently, 

 and shows the substance to be highly volatile. In fact, if we 

 suspend a piece of reddened litmus paper in a flask, partly filled 

 with the water, it is speedily restored to its original blue 

 colour. 



If a drop of the water be applied to the tongue, it does not at 

 first produce any sensible effect ; but, after a few minutes, a 

 sharp sensation is perceived over the whole mouth, and particu- 

 larly about the throat, where it continues for a long time. 



The water saturates acids, and the compound formed with 

 sulphuric or nitric acid crystallizes by slow evaporation in fine 

 white and brilliant needles. 



The water also precipitates some metallic solutions ; for 

 instance, acetate of lead in brilliant, white, satiny crystals ; 

 sulphate of copper, green ; nitrate of silver, white, soon becom- 

 ing rose coloured, as I also observed in my first experiments. 



From these facts it seems beyond a doubt, that there exists in 

 the daphnes a substance possessed of alkaline properties, since 

 it acts on vegetable colours like an alkali, saturates acids, and, 

 with some of them at least, forms crystallizable salts. But, not- 

 withstanding these experiments, I cannot yet admit, conclu- 

 sively, the presence of a vegetable alkali in the bark of the 

 daphnes, for having neutralized a large quantity of water, satu- 

 rated with the pungent principle of the daphne gnidiutn, I 

 obtained by evaporation a salt which evidently contained muriate 

 of ammonia. Hence it is possible that ammonia alone was the 

 cause of the alkaline properties of the water distilled from the 

 daphne, and that the pungent principle had no share in produc- 

 ing them. 



It is not very easy to comprehend how a substance so volatile 

 as the pungent principle of the daphne, when freed from all 

 foreign substances, should yet keep so long in the dry bark of 

 the daphne. I am convinced, however, that it is in less quan- 

 tity in the dry bark than in the fresh. The volatilization of the 

 pungent principle is without doubt assisted by the ammonia. It 

 is probably retained in the bark in combination with the resin, 

 and, perhaps, also with acids, for I found that I obtained an 

 increased quantity of it by distilling the infusion with magnesia, 

 or other alkaline substances. — (Journal de Pharmacie.) 



