146 



ANALYSIS OF SQUINANTH. 



Root of 

 rush. 



Treated with 

 alcohol, 



nth water. 



and dilute ni- 



"J acid. 



Incinerated. 



Sect. II L Analysis of the root of camel's hay, androfrogon 

 schananthus, L., sent from the Isle of France by Mr. Jan- 

 net, in 1808. 



This root has a yellowish colour, and in smell resembles 

 Virginian snakeroot. 



Twenty grammes [308 # 91 grs] were infused in alcohol, 

 which was renewed, till it no longer acquired any colour. 



The filtered alcoholic solutions had a fine golden hue. 

 Subjected to distillation, alcohol came over, the first por- 

 tions of which had no foreign smell; but as the liquor in 

 the retort became less spirituous, and required more heat 

 to keep up the ebullition, the weaker spirit that came over 

 had a perceptible smell, a little resembling that of the root. 



The matter remaining in the retort became turbid, and 

 was decanted boiling hot into a capsule. On cooling it let 

 fall a brown oil. 



The supernatant liquid had a yellow colour ; and a very 

 little taste, slightly saline, and a little aromatic. The oily 

 sediment was thick, smooth to the touch, had an acrid, 

 burning taste, like an essential oil, and in smell greatly 

 resembled myrrh. 



The 20 gr. of the root, after being exhausted by alcohol, 

 were boiled in water. The decoction, after being concen- 

 trated, had a yellow colour, and very little tasce; it did not 

 precipitate sulphate of iron or gelatine ; it was not rendered 

 turbid by alcohol or infusion of galls; it reddened infusion 

 of litmus pretty strongly, but, as the liquor was in small 

 quantity, the nature of the acid could not be ascertained : 

 thus the alcohol had left the water scarcely any thing to dis- 

 solve. v 



After the root had been boiled in water, it was infused in 

 diluted nitric acid. This infusion gave with ammonia a very 

 slight precipitate, which resembled oxalate of lime ; but there 

 was too little of it, to be certain of its nature. 



20 gr. [80891 grs] being incinerated left a red residuum 

 weighing 8 ciec. [12-36 grs]. This residuum dissolved in mu- 

 riatic acid with a very slight effervescence. The solution had 

 a "fine yellow colour, and gave with ammonia a bulky pre- 

 cipitate of a deep brown colour. Treated with caustic pot- 

 ash, 



