KAMALA-ROTTLERINE. 77 



Kamala, as found in the Indian bazaars, has the aspect of a 1858> 

 brick-red powder, possessing from its structure that peculiar Kamala. 

 mobile character which we notice in Lycopodium and Lupuline. 

 It also agrees with Lycopodium in the difficulty with which it 

 is mixed with water, and in the manner in which it ignites 

 when thrown into the air over the flame of a candle. Ex- 

 amined with a lens, or still better with the compound microscope, 

 it is seen to consist of garnet-red, semi-transparent, roundish 

 granules, of from -^^ to ^-^ of an inch in diameter, more or 

 less mixed with minute stellate hairs and the remains of stalks 

 and leaves : the latter substances however are easily removed by 

 careful sifting, the drug thereby acquiring a brighter red colour 

 and more uniform appearance. 



Kamala has but little smell or taste. It is insoluble in cold Chemistry of 

 water, and nearly so in boiling water. It is soluble in a solution 

 of an alkaline carbonate, and still more so in one of caustic 

 alkali, a deep-red solution being in either case produced. The 

 addition of an acid to these solutions occasions a precipitate of 

 resinous matter. 



Treated with alcohol or ether, Kamala affords a large pro- 

 portion of soluble matter and a solution of a beautiful deep-red 

 colour. The alcoholic solution upon the addition of water 

 becomes turbid from the -precipitation of resin. By repeated 

 digestions in hot alcohol, the whole of the resinous colouring 

 matter of Kamala may be removed, a pale-whitish substance 

 being the only residuum. 



Dr. Thomas Anderson, Kegius Professor of Chemistry in the Rottlerine. 

 University of Glasgow, who has made Kamala the subject of 

 special investigation, 1 finds that if a concentrated ethereal 

 solution of Kamala be allowed to stand for a couple of days, it 

 solidifies into a mass of granular crystals. If these be drained, 

 pressed in bibulous paper, and purified from adhering resin by 

 repeated solution and crystallization in ether, the crystalline 

 substance is obtained in a state of purity. It then consists of 

 yellow crystals having the form of minute plates and a fine 



" On the Colouring Matter of Eottlera tin ctoria" Edinburgh New Philo- 

 sophical Journal, Jan. April, 1855, p. 296. 



