J48 MEDICINAL USE OF PLUMBAGO. 



quantity of brown matter was deposited ; after which a few 

 drops of oil collected on the surface having the taste and 

 smell of oil of cloves. 

 yielded an oil. The liquor, evaporated spontaneously in the open air, 

 yielded a pretty considerable quantity more of this brown oil, 

 and a clear liquor, as thick as a sirup, which had the taste of 

 oil of cloves mixed with bitterness. 

 The leaves I boiled in water the leaves exhausted by alcohol, but they 



boiled in wa- on * v imparted to it a slight yellow colour, and the property 

 of faintly reddening infusion of litmus, and being copiously 

 precipitated by alcohol. This decoction was not affected by 

 infusion of galls, solution of sulphate of iron, or gelatine. 

 and incinera- After the leaves had been drained, 1 incinerated them, and 

 tedl from the 15 gr. [231*68 gvs] employed obtained 7 dec. [10*81 



grs] of carbonate of lime, mixed with a little phosphate of 

 the same earth. 



As it is to be presumed, that this lime was combined with 

 oxalic acid in the leaves, I digested 8 gr. [12*36 grs] in nitrie 

 acid diluted with a great deal of water ; but the acid liquor 

 yielded a very little precipitate when saturated with am- 

 monia. 

 The oil similar The oil we obtained from the raventsara exhibited abso- 

 to that of lutely all the properties of the essential oil of cloves ; its 

 colour, smell taste, and specific gravity, which is a little 

 greater than that of water. It differed only by being a little 

 more consistent, which was probably owingto the leaves being 

 old, so that the oil had been thickened, and in some sort re- 

 sinified, by time. 

 Different From this analysis we may infer, that vegetables of differ- 



plants may ent S p ec i es are capable of forming an essential oil of the'same 



form the same r r V s 



oil. nature. 



The leaves a These leaves might be employed for domestic purposes 



substitute for instead of cloves, using them only in larger quantity. 



doves. 



— - • — 



XIII. 



Of the Efficacy of Plumbago against Tetters', by Dr. WlEN- 



IIOLD*. 



Plumbago Jljr LUMBAGO is a natural compound of nine parts carbon 



employed as w j*h about one of iront, forming the carburet of iron of the 



a medicine, ° 



* Ana.de Cbhn. vol. LXXVJ, p. 193 f Carbon 96, iron 4. C 



chemists. 



