290 M. Caventou's Chemical Researches on Starch, 



There remained nevertheless a great quantity of trans- 

 parent gelatinous substance, which had become considerably 

 swelled. This substance no longer gave out any thing to the 

 water, dissolved easily in hydrochloric acid, gave oxalic acid 

 by nitric acid, and possessed in short all the properties recog- 

 nised in bassorine. 



100 parts of salep lose by calcination 96 parts: it then 

 contains 4 per cent of fixed principles, composed of sea-salt, 

 of phQsphate of lime, and of some traces of sulphate of lime. 



Thus salep is composed of three bodies already known, the 

 respective quantities of which may be stated in this manner : 

 A little gum, very little starch, and a great deal of bassorine. 

 According to what has been said, we see that the rank which 

 is generally given to salep amongst amylaceous matters may 

 be much disputed.. This compound might on the contrary 

 be very well placed by the side of gum tragacanth; for, 

 according to Bucholz, this gum is formed in a similar man- 

 ner. It contains indeed a gummy part soluble in cold water, 

 and a matter which swells considerably in it, nevertheless 

 without dissolving ; yet . this differs from the bassorine of 

 salep, in as much as that dissolves by heat, and loses by 

 this circumstance its most remarkable property, that is to say 

 its insolubility and sponginess in cold water. I shall not 

 take into consideration the starch which is found in salep, and 

 which does not exist in gum tragacanth, because It is contained 

 in such small quantity that it might strictly be considered 

 there as accidental. In these latter times, they have never- 

 theless proved the presence of starch in some specimens of 

 gum tragacanth. 



This analytical examination of salep proves then that its 

 nutritive virtue is not owing to starch. Nevertheless I should 

 say that all the orchis roots are not of the same nature as 

 salep ; M. Vauquelin told me he had extracted from some indi- 

 genous orchides a considerable quantity of fine starch, whilst 

 M. Robiquet assured me that he could not extract any trace 

 of the same principle from some of the orchides of our coun- 

 try. These contradictory results prove how inconstant is the 

 presence of this amylaceous principle in these roots, and can 

 have very little influence on their medical properties. 



For the purpose of throwing some light upon the question, 

 I will here shortly relate a process which was pointed out by 

 M. Matthieu of Dombasle {Ann. de Chim. t. Ixxvii), for pre- 

 paring salep with indigenous orchides. The author has made 

 his experiments with the orchis mascula, pyramidalis, latifolia, 

 and masidata. He clears these bulbs with care from the little 

 roots and the germ, then throws them into fresh water, where 



