82 
ilUMULUS LtTULUS. 
two floors, on the upper of which the greener hop§ are laid, and 
gradually dried before being brought to support the heat of the 
lower floor. When the strobiles are sufliciently dried, which may 
be known by their becoming crisp, they are removerl from the kiln, 
and laid in heaps in the store-houses, where they are suff^ered to 
remain for several weeks, to acquire toughness and tenacity before 
they are bagged. Hops when well dried and packed will keep 
good and retain their active properties tor several years. 
Sensible and Chemical Propertfes, <fec. Hops have a 
peculiar fragrant and somewhat narcotic odour, and a bitter, slightly 
astringent taste ; these qualities are extracted by boiling water, 
alcohol, or ether. The watery infusion is of a pale straw colour, 
turning olive by sulphate of iron, muddy by mineral acids, and yield- 
ing a precipitate with spirit of wine, acetate of lead, nitrate of 
silver, and tarlarized antimony. " When rubbed with magnesia, or 
lime, a rod. dipped in muriatic acid, discovers the presence of 
ammonia. The ethereal tincture, when evaporated on water, leaves 
a pellicle of greenish, intensely bitter resin, and deposits some 
extractive."* Distilled with water, hops yield an essential oil, and 
the decoction by evaporation furnishes a bitter extract. 
Dr. Ives, of New York, has ascertained by some experiments that 
the active properties of hops reside in a substance which forms 
about one- sixth part of their weight, and which is readily separated 
by merely sifting through a fine sieve ; to this substance Dr. Ives 
has given the name of Lupulin,t which by analysis he found to con- 
* Th6mson. 
+ It Lad been described in France by M. Planclie, and more recently by MM. 
Chevallier and Payen, under the name of Matiere jaune du houblon. 
MM. Payen and Chevallier found tbe cones of tlie French hop to consist of the 
following substances: — 1. water; 2. an essential oil; 3. sup6racetat'e of amtnonia ; 
4. carl)onic acid ; 5. a white vegetable matter, soluble in boiling water (which when pre- 
cipitated, op cooling, does not redissolve in that fluid) ; 6. malate of lime ; 7. albumen ; 
8. gum ; 9. malic acid ; 10. resin, a peculiar green matter, the bitter principle of the 
hop; 12. a fatty matter; 13. cblorophylle ; 14. acetates of lime and ammonia; 15. 
nitrate, muriate, and sulphate of potass ; 16. suhcarbonate of potass ; 17. carbonate and 
phosphate of lime; 18. traces of phosphate of magnesia; 19, sulphur; 20. oxide of 
iron ; and 21. silica. The Belgic and English hop, .subjected to similar trials, yielded 
the same principles, but in different proportions. The French contairred more essential 
oil than the Belgic, and less than the English. Hops, soon after picking, yield cceieris 
paribus, more essential oil, and less resin than the old, a circnmstance which induced 
MM. Payen and Chevallier to think (hat the oil is capable of being resinified. — Journal 
de Pharmacie, Juin 1822. 
