OF THE HOOT OF THE HEMLOCK. 
57 
had been retained at a temperature of 212° Fah. for some minutes, it was shaken 
with ether. This dissolved out a little brown subcrystalline matter having a. 
faint odour and taste of rhizoconine. 
III. April 10 , 1867.—250 grains of the same extract of the root were liquified 
with a little water, and f 3 iv of solution of caustic potash (1 part to 3 of water). 
The mixture was thoroughly washed with separate portions of atther, and the 
latter decanted. After distillation of the aether there remained 1*8 grain of 
light brown oily matter, which after standing-by for a few honrs became in 
great part solid, from the formation of beautiful dendritic masses of crystals. 
It had a mixed odour of couia and tobacco, and an acrid cooling minty taste, 
becoming very bitter and tobacco-like. It contained but the faintest trace of 
conia, and was composed, like the “ sethereal extract,” from the retort remainder, 
and in about the same proportions, of rhizoconine, rhizoconylene, and cona- 
marine,—the first of these bodies being, in both cases, the most abundant, and 
the last the least so. After separation of the conia and conamarine, the re¬ 
mainder (about 1 grain) was dissolved in a mixture of 15 minims of alcohol and 5 
of aether, and injected beneath the skin of a cat. It produced no effect whatever. 
IV. As it occurred to me that the conia might be stored up in the root in 
some insoluble combination, I took the whole of the roots from which the juice 
had been expressed, weighing now 4^ pounds, and pulped them the same day 
with 30 ounces of hot water holding 4 ounces of caustic potash in solution. 
The whole of the house was filled with a very powerful and disagreeable mousy 
odour. The mixture was set aside for 24 hours. At the end of this time 17 
fluid ounces of dark blackish-brown grumous fluid was obtained by pressure. 
It was distilled from a chloride of calcium bath, at a temperature between 218° 
and 220° Fahr., and 14^ ounces of clear colourless fluid were obtained. It pre¬ 
sented a slight greasy film, was strongly alkaline, and had all the other physical 
and chemical characters of a mixed solution of ammonia and conia. By Geiger’s 
process 15 grains of sulphate of ammonia and a small drop of nearly pure conia 
were separated from this distillate after neutralization with sulphuric acid. 
From the foregoing observations it appears :— 1 . That as compared with the 
other parts of the plant, the root contains only a very small proportion of conia. 
2. That in the careful preparation of an extract from the juice, this small quan¬ 
tity of couia is almost wholly lost. 3. That the root contains in addition to a 
bitter resin, two neutral bodies which, at a temperature between 220° and 250° 
Fahr., are capable of volatilization with water (see Experiment I.). 4. That these 
latter bodies do not appear to possess any active poisonous properties. 
They exist in all other parts of the plant, although apparently in much smaller 
quantities thau in the root, for I have obtained them from the retort remainder 
after the distillation of conia both from the leaves and the fruit. In the latter 
case they were associated with conhydrin. 
Rhizoconine is an interesting body, inasmuch as it resembles nicotyliain some 
of its physical characters. The slight acridity and carrot flavour of the root are 
undoubtedly due to this substance. * 
I come now to the prime object of my inquiries—the medicinal value of the 
root. Within an hour after the expression of the juice I took f 5 SS of it without 
result. But a full answer to this inquiry will be found in the following experi¬ 
ments with the 
Succus conii rndicis prepared as above described. The mixture of crude juice 
and spirit deposited some dirty white albumen. The filtered product was quite 
clear, and of a delicate yellowish-brown tinge, and it completely retains the ori¬ 
ginal odour and taste of the root at the present time. 
April 21 st, I took f jij of the “ succuson the 26th, f 3 iv ; May 2 nd, f 3 vj, 
and set out walking; on the 10 th of the same month I swallowed f^j of the 
‘‘succus ” and remained perfectly quiet, watching for some effect. None, how¬ 
ever, followed this or any of the previous doses. 
