THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[March 23, 1872. 
762 
extracted, but it lias to be done very rapidly, as the 
pepsin swells up considerably and loses its tenacity. 
By operating in this manner I have obtained a 
pepsin which dissolves in acidulated water to quite 
a clear colourless liquid, but as it still contains traces 
of salt, I prefer to call it purified pepsin. 
I obtained a pepsin quite free of chloride of so¬ 
dium—which by combustion did not leave any 
ash—by swelling purified pepsin in water to a 
thick mucilaginous liquid, and mixing it with alco¬ 
hol of 95 per cent. A gelatinous, almost transparent 
precipitate is formed, which is put on a cloth, washed 
with diluted alcohol, then pressed and dried. This 
preparation did not leave any ash by combustion; 
but I was greatly disappointed in my expectation, 
when I found that the digestive strength of this pure 
pepsin was not as great as that of the purified pep¬ 
sin which still contained sodium chloride. No doubt 
the use of alcohol had impaired the digestive power 
of the pepsin to some extent. 
Properties of Pepsin. —The pepsin is, as already 
mentioned, very soluble in water when recently pre¬ 
cipitated, but when once air dry it dissolves but slowly 
and only in very small quantities in water. 
The dry purified pepsin, when put into water, 
swells up considerably, becomes perfectly white and, 
when vigorously shaken, disintegrates to small 
floccules, which swim in the liquid and remain sus¬ 
pended for a long time, while a very small quantity 
-will dissolve. 
The watery solution has an almost neutral reaction, 
is coagulated by boiling, and gives with alcohol a 
transparent, gelatinous precipitate. 
With sulphate of copper it remains clear at_first, 
but after several hours becomes turbid. 
Bichloride of mercury gives immediately a white 
precipitate. 
With tannin a very copious white precipitate is 
obtained. 
Nitrate of lead forms a white precipitate. 
The precipitate formed by chloride of sodium is 
very characteristic and at the same time very inte¬ 
resting. When a saturated solution of chloride of 
sodium is added to a clear solution of pepsin, not 
too concentrated, at first a jelly-like transparent co¬ 
agulation is formed, which disappears upon stirring, 
and the liquid acquires a slightly opalescent appear¬ 
ance ; after a short time it becomes more turbid and 
email flakes are noticed floating in it, which soon 
will form into small transparent globules and as 
euch rise to the surface. When the quantity of 
pepsin in a liquid is very small, the opalescence and 
turbidity is hardly noticed, but after some time the 
small globules will appear on the surface. 
The watery solution of pepsin decomposes readily; 
after a few days small flakes separate from the clear 
solution, which increase in number by longer stand¬ 
ing, and on the fourth day it emits a foul, disagree¬ 
able odour. 
The watery solution of pepsin shows very little 
action on coagulated albumen: a certain quantity of 
albumen, which by a watery solution was hardly 
acted upon in twenty-four hours, was readily dis¬ 
solved after addition of a few drops of hydrochloric 
acid. A watery extraction of the mucous membrane 
was also experimented with, with the same result; 
before the addition of hydrochloric acid it did not 
dissolve albumen; after acidulating it the albumen 
dissolved easily. 
{To be continued.) 
THE MOTHER PLANT OF WORMSEED. 
Abstracted from a Paper of Professor Willkomm. 
BY PROFESSOR FLUCKIGER. 
Wormseed is exclusively brought from Central 
Asia, and consists of flower-buds of a species of Arte¬ 
misia, which is now for the first time described* by 
Willkomm, Professor of Botany in the University of 
Dorpat. The plant was brought there by Professor 
Petzlioldt, who had spent the summer and spring of 
the past year in Turkestan. He had the plant col¬ 
lected there by the people gathering wormseed near 
the small town of Turkestan, about 44° north lat. 
and 68° east long., that is to say, between the Aral 
Sea and the Lake Balkash; the area of the plant 
probably extends much more eastward. Willkomm 
gives a full description and diagnosis of the Artemisia 
under examination, of which we will endeavour to 
abstract the most important parts. 
The genus Artemisia includes a large number of 
species, divided by systematic botanists into several 
tribes. Seriphulium is the name of one of these 
tribes; the species which belong to it are provided 
with hermaphrodite, homogamous florets. They 
are inserted on a rather stalk-like receptacle, not a 
disk, each floret being accompanied by a small bract. 
The apex of the short receptacle, however, is devoid 
both of florets and of bracts. The small capitula or 
heads of the Seripliidia exhibit only a few florets, 
and are arranged so as to form paniculated spikes. 
The florets and the bracts, as well as the involucral 
scales, show numerous glands or papillae, containing 
an aromatic resinoid substance. The bifurcation of 
the style becomes obvious only when the floret is 
fully developed. 
The plant from which wormseed is collected is 
strongly shrubby, its numerous yellowish stems and 
branches being woody in their lower parts, and at¬ 
taining a height of from 1 to 1^ ft. The branches 
are densely tufted; the whole plant, indeed, forms a 
broom, or at least each stem may be compared with 
a little broom. The pinnate leaves are thickish, of 
a greyish-green hue, although they are beset with 
only a few scattered soft hairs. In the youngest 
state, the leaves of short shoots are densely covered 
with grey felted hairs, whereas the fully-developed 
leaves, as well as the involucres and florets, are en¬ 
tirely naked. This is one of the most prominent 
characters of the plant under notice, and, as it is 
well known, of commercial wormseed. 
The author had not before him fully developed 
florets; but in these there occurs the strange fact 
that the style is club-shaped, much shorter than the 
stamina, and enclosed in a very thin transparent 
membrane, which disappears when the style begins 
to be separated into two stigmas. Willkomm has 
like vise met with a similar membrane in Artemisia 
Barrelieri. 
The plant of Turkestan is very closely allied to 
some other Artemis ice, especially to A. Lercheana, 
Steclim., A. pauciflora, Stechm.,—both figured in 
Gmelin’s ‘ Flora Sibirica,’ tab. 50 and 52, the former 
also much better in Ledebour’s ‘ leones Florae Ros- 
sicse,’ tab. 488. Another species resembling worm- 
seed plant is A. monogyna, Kit.; but all these are 
covered with a dense felt of whitish hairs. As to 
the florets of the mother-plant of wormseed, Will- 
* In the Botanische Zeitung of H. von Mohl and A. de 
Bary, 1872, March 1st, p. 130. 
