MEDICINAL USE OF CONIUM MACULATUM. 
491 
In order to apply the reagent selected, it was next necessary to get rid of the alcohol 
in the specimens to be tested. A certain definite and equal portion of each (20 cubic 
centimetres, or between 5 and 6 fluid drachms) was taken, the same amount of a watery 
solution of oxalic acid added to each portion of tincture taken, which was then evapo¬ 
rated by a gentle heat, not rising above 110° F., to approaching dryness. The residues 
were then diluted with water to the original volume of 20 c. c. each, and afterwards still 
further diluted, as occasion required, till they each were affected to the same faint degree 
of turbidity, by the application of the test-liquid. It was found that the liquid from 
the leaves of the plant just in full flower admitted of a dilution with one and a half 
times its volume in water. That from the leaves from the plant gone to seed bore but 
a quarter its volume of water ; that from the full-grown seeds required dilution with 
seven volumes of water, and that from the immature seeds gave a perceptible turpidity 
with the test-liquid when diluted with eight times its volume of water, making the 
comparative strengths, in the active principle, as follows:—A 3 = 10; B 3 = 5; C 3 = 32; 
and D 3 = 36. These experiments showed the partly-grown fruits to be the most active 
portion of the plant. The tinctures made from the several parcels of leaves and seeds 
after drying gave very unexpectedly thessaine figures, with the corresponding tinctures 
made from the undried specimens, from which results the inference was drawn that the 
method of drying adopted had not dissipated any of the active principle. 
Some full-grown fruits, collected in August, 1859, dried in a darkened room, and 
kept in a paper package on a shelf, exposed to the ordinary changes of temperature from 
changes in the seasons, were also examined. A quantity of them were powdered till 
they passed through the sieve of 37 meshes to the inch, and 177 grains of the powder, 
corresponding with the amount of powder of seeds used in the previous experiments 
taken, moistened with water acidulated with oxalic acid, placed in a conical percolator, 
and water poured on till the same amount of liquid was obtained as in the previous 
experiments. This solution was found to bear dilution with seven volumes of water 
before reaching the limit of perceptible reaction with the test-liquid. This seems to 
indicate that the dried seeds retain their activity unimpaired for upwards of seven years. 
But it should be borne in mind that as the summers of 1859 and 1866 probably differed 
in temperature, so the plants grown in those years may have differed in their original 
content of the active alkaloids. 
Specimens of fluid extract of conium (U.S.P.), (that is, of the dried leaves), prepared 
by Dr. E. R. Squibb, and also of fluid extract of conium seed, prepared by the same 
hands from the dried, full-grown, but green fruits, were also tested in the way narrated 
above, the same amounts, 20 c. c., being operated on. The results obtained were, that 
the oxalic solution prepared from the fluid extract of the leaves bore dilution with 
thirty-two volumes of water, while that from the fluid extract of the seed bore dilution 
with 224 volumes of water, making the seeds in this case seven times as strong as the 
leaves. 
It may be a matter of interest to state further that a fluid extract of conium, bearing 
the label of Tilden and Co., and one with the label of Henry Thayer and Co., were also 
tested in the same manner. By this method the solution from Tilden’s extract bore 
dilution with about two-a-half volumes of water, while that from Thayer’s gave no reac¬ 
tion, even when undiluted. Some further investigation showed that this want of 
reaction was due, perhaps, to the presence of acetic acid, and so a modified form of the 
operation was tried with the three fluid extracts, i. e. Squibb’s, Tilden’s, and Thayer’s. 
The oxalic solutions obtained, 20 c. c. of the fluid extracts, were treated with solution 
of caustic soda till they gave decided alkaline reactions. They were then shaken in 
closed vials with about three times their bulk of ether, added in four successive portions, 
and the ethereal portion decanted and evaporated in contact with water acidulated with 
oxalic acid. These same bulks of ethereal solution were obtained in each case, and the 
same amounts of the same strength of acidulated water used. The residues obtained 
were diluted to the same extent, and the further dilution they would bear tested with 
the reagent before mentioned. In this series of experiments Squibb’s fluid extract (of 
leaves) gave a solution bearing dilution with twenty times its volume of water, Tilden’s 
one-and-a-half times its volume, and Thayer’s four times its volume, making the com¬ 
parative strengths of Squibb’s 42, Tilden’s 5, and Thayer’s 10. 
Some fluid extract made from the fresh fruits of conium in 1854, in such a manner 
that a minim of the liquid represented a grain of the undried seeds, was also tested. 
