THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [January 21,1871. 
SSI 
PREPARATIONS OF CONIUM; THEIR CHARAC¬ 
TERS AND MEDICINAL VALUE.* 
By John Harley, M.D. 
In an able and exhaustive paper in the December 
number of the Practitioner for December, Dr. Hailey 
records the results of a continuation of his researches 
upon the comparative value of the different preparations 
of Conium. f Although written principally for the infor¬ 
mation of the medical practitioner, it has considerable 
interest for the pharmacist. 
Dr. Harley is of opinion that the only reliable test of 
the amount of active principle in a preparation of hem¬ 
lock is physiological action, the alkaloid being so subtle 
and unstable that chemical reagents used for the quan¬ 
titative determination of conia, when combined with the 
ordinary constituents of vegetable infusions, give most 
fallacious results. He says that any one acquainted 
with the physiological effects of conia may easily deter¬ 
mine its amount by subjecting a nervous system of 
known power to its action, an experiment for which an 
hour will suffice. 
Schroff has recently stated']; (1) that the unripe fruit 
of one-year conium plants contains the smallest amount 
of conia; (2) that the unripe fruit of biennial plants 
contains the most conia, especially when the develop¬ 
ment of the fruit is advanced and near ripening; (3) that 
the perfectly ripe fruit, produced only by the biennial 
plants, stands in point of efficacy between these two. 
Dr. Harley says that he does not quite agree with all 
these particulars. He has found that conia stands to the 
ripe and unripe fruit pretty much in the same relation 
as opium does to the ripe and unripe fruit of the poppy. 
It abounds in the green pericarp, but gradually decreases 
as this becomes dry and brown. As to the statement 
that only biennial plants produce perfectly ripe fruit, he 
says that for four years he has kept up a little plantation 
of annual hemlock plants derived from the self-sown seed 
of a previous generation of annual plants. 
The following were the preparations used in the expe¬ 
riments :— 
Preparations of the Green Fruit. 
1. Tincture. —Two samples were used; one distin¬ 
guished as “London,” prepared by macerating the fresh 
undried crushed annual fruit in proof-spirit, and perco¬ 
lating (3VJ yielded ^xxvj of tincture); the other was 
made from dried American fruit according to the direc¬ 
tions and in the proportions ordered in the B. P. 
2. Extract. —Prepared by evaporating the tinctures to 
dryness over a water-bath, 1000 grain measures yielding 
20 grains of bright yellowish-brown brittle extract, 
which became soft on exposure, from absorption of about 
15 per cent, of water, and formed a translucent extract 
of the colour of Cape aloes. Treated with excess of 
potash, it assumed a gamboge colour, and evolved a 
powerful odour of conia. 
3. Fluid Extract. —Prepared by Dr. Squibb, of Brook- 
lyn, New York; a rich brown spirituous fluid of sp. gr. 
0-992, one minim representing one grain of the green 
undried fruit. 1000 grain measures yielded 98 grains of 
extract, possessing the same physical characters as the 
preceding. 
Preparations of the Fresh and Flowering Plant. 
4. Succus Conii, B. P.—The author calls attention to 
"the variability of this preparation according to the quan¬ 
tity of water contained in the plants. The colour, vary¬ 
ing from that of pale sherry to dark Marsala wine, is an 
evidence of its strength, succus as dark as the latter be¬ 
* Abstracted from a paper by Dr. Harley, published in the 
Practitioner for December, 1870. 
f See Pharm. Journ., 2nd ser., Vol. VIII. pp. 413. 452 
672, 601, 710; IX. 471. * ’ 
X Wochenblat. der K. K. Gesellschaft der Aerzte in Wien 
1870, No. 1 ; and Pharm. Journ. No. 18, p. 348. 
ing three times as strong as the palest variety. Two 
preparations were used; one intermediate in depth and 
colour, prepared from year to year by Mr. Buckle ; the 
other, darker and stronger, prepared in the unusually 
dry season of 1865 by Messrs. Allen and Hanbury. 
5. Extractum Conii , B. P.—The author says that 6 
grains, the maximum dose of this preparation, cannot 
possibly contain more than 0-084 of a grain of conia, a 
quantity insufficient to produce hemlock effects in a child 
two years old; while 60 grains at least of the freshly- 
prepared extract are required to produce slight effects in 
the active, and 15 to 20 on the most enfeebled adult. 
6. Tincture. —Prepared by Mr. Deane, of Clapham, 
from half-blown plants gathered in the last week in 
June, 1869, by exhausting 32 ounces (avoird.) of the 
herb, previously crushed in a mill, with rectified spirit 
until 53 ounces of tincture were obtained (= nearly 
5 drachms of the fresh plant in f*j). Of a grass-green 
tinge at first, but became brownish on keeping; sp. gr. 
•940; 1000 grain-measures yielded 36 grains of light 
yellowish-brown extract, which absorbed 15 per cent, of 
water. During evaporation a quantity of green resin 
separated. 
IPreparations of the Pried Plant. 
7. Tincture. —Prepared by Mr. Deane from similar 
plants to the preceding, dried in the open air, and used 
as soon as dry (16 ounces of the fresh herb yielded 
4 ounces of the dry). In this preparation the directions 
of the P. L., 1851, were followed, i. e. 2$ ounces (avoird.) 
to 20 fluid ounces of rectified spirit. It retains a bright 
green tinge. A quantity of vivid emerald-green resin 
separated on evaporation. Sp. gr. -940; 1000 grain- 
measures yielded 32 grains of extract, possessing the 
same general characters as the preceding, but more deli¬ 
quescent, absorbing 25 per cent, of water. 
8. Fluid Extract. —Prepared by Messrs. Clarke, Beas- 
dale, Bell and Co., of York, from herbs gathered in the 
neighbourhood of York, at Midsummer, in the excep¬ 
tionally hot and dry season of 1868. The roughly- 
ground leaves being exhausted by percolation of proof- 
spirit, the spirit was distilled off, and the extract evapo¬ 
rated until one fluid drachm equalled one drachm of the 
dry leaves ( — j ounce of fresh herb). This is a dark 
yellowish-brown watery fluid of a rank hemlock odour, 
depositing much greenish-brown resin on the sides of 
the bottle. 1000 grain-measures yielded 195 grains of 
bright, orange-brown, brittle extract, rapidly absorbing 
water to the extent of 19 per cent. 
9. Benzoate of Conia.- —The author had had furnished 
to him by a member of a City firm of druggists a solu¬ 
tion labelled “ Benzoate of Conia; one drachm contains 
two grains. Dose, five to twenty drops;” and also 
samples of the solid substance. Failing to obtain from 
it any physiological effects, even when the dose was in¬ 
creased to 20 grains of the solid substance, he was in¬ 
duced to give it a thorough examination, which led him 
to the conclusion that the so-called benzoate of conia 
was an impure benzoate of soda, devoid of a trace of 
conia. 
A neutral benzoate of conia is obtained by mixing 
equal proportions of solutions of conia and benzoic acid 
in dilute spirit, evaporating to dryness and preserving 
over sulphuric acid. The result is a clear bright amber- 
coloured body of the consistence of soft extract, with a 
faint conia odour, a bitter taste dovoid of acridity, and 
forming with water an odourless solution. This sub¬ 
stance and its aqueous solution, even -when a thousand 
times diluted, evolves the odour of conia when super¬ 
saturated with potash; and this occurs in the presence 
of large quantities of either benzoic acid or benzoate ot 
soda, showing that these bodies do not interfere with 
the nasal test for conia. Heated in a test-tube the ben¬ 
zoate runs, volatilizes and decomposes with evolution 
of white fumes, in which the odour of benzoic acid is 
masked by the more powerful one of conia. 
