180 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
countries, viz. Spain, Sicily, Cape of Good Hope, France, and Germany, and 
the kinds of wine I have selected are Victoria Sherry, an excellent standard 
type of this kind of wine, Marsala, Cape Sherry, Cape*Madeira, Chablis, 
Barsac, Hochheimer, and Niersteiner. (I may add they were all purchased 
from the European and Colonial Vfine Company.) In addition to the sam¬ 
ples prepared with the pure wines, are two other series made with the same 
wines, hut one series containing in addition 10 per cent, of spirit of wine, 
5G over-proof, added during the maceration, and the other containing 10 per 
cent, of spirit added after the filtration of the product. All the samples 
have been prepared six months, and were sealed as soon as they could be 
bottled (twenty or thirty specimens were here exhibited to the meeting). 
These were only parts of what I prepared, the remainders being in every 
case reserved for examination after being allowed to stand and deposit for 
four or five months. 
This brings us to the first question stated in the list of subjects suggested 
for investigation by the Conference—What is the nature of the deposit in 
ipecacuanha wine? We are all familiar with the appearance of the deposit 
in our retail and dispensing bottles, and familiar too with the fact, that how¬ 
ever bright the wine may be when the bottles are filled, it always has to be 
filtered once or twice before they are empty. The deposit is readily separable 
by filtration. Under the microscope, it is seen to consist in every case of 
two distinctly different substances mixed together, in proportions varying ac- 
cording to the nature of the wine which has been used. One of these is a 
yellowish, transparent, granular mass, totally destitute of any trace of crys¬ 
tallization, and presenting an appearance very like that of minute starch- 
granules ; of this I shall speak again. The other is in large white well-formed 
prismatic crystals, evidently bitartrate of potash derived from wine. In most 
of the samples, the bitartrate was estimated to amount to as much as 50 
per cent, of the whole deposit; in others, to not more than 20 per cent. The 
relative pr >portions of the two constituents of the deposit were net, in any 
case, determined by weighing, on account of the small quantity procurable. 
On submitting it to chemical examination, the observed reactions proved 
that the deposit in every case, from whatever sample of wine the preparation 
had been made, was qualitatively identical. It was found to be insoluble or 
nearly so, with the exception of course of the bitartrate of potash. Alcohol 
partially dissolved it, and the portion insoluble in that menstruum, dissolved 
entirely in dilute hydrochloric acid. To obtain it in the form of solution 
for examination, it was treated with alcohol mixed with a few drops of strong 
hydrochloric acid. This dissolved all but the bitartrate of potash, and the 
solution gave the following reactions:—Being carefully neutralized with 
ammonia, tincture of galls produced in it the unmistakable grey-brown 
precipitate, tannate of emetina. 
Solution of iodine produced a yellow precipitate, hydriodate of emetina. 
Excess of ammonia gave the ruddy-brown coloration characteristic of ipe- 
cacuanhic acid, when combined with alkalies. Tincture of sesquichloride of 
iron produced an olive-green coloration, and sometimes a precipitate of the 
same colour, ipecacuanhate of iron. Answering in a uniformly similar 
manner to these tests in every case, the deposit was found to consist of the 
only important ingredient in the ipecacuanha root or wine, viz. ipecacu¬ 
anhate of emetina, but mixed in varying proportions with bitartrate of 
potash. It may be asked here—as the deposit is so uniformly identical in 
every sample prepared with whatever kind of wine, some influence, acting 
with equal uniformity, must be the cause of the deposit; what is that in¬ 
fluence P The answer in my opinion is, oxygen acting upon and absorbed by 
the ipecacuanhic acid. Having arrived at this opinion only near the close of 
