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BEITISH THAEMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
small quantity of milk of lime, and filtered; to tlie clear liquid was tlien 
added carbonate of potash till it was strongly alkaline, and the whole 
thoroughly agitated with about a pint of chloroform. After standing all 
night, the chloroform subsided as a slightly greenish oil, which was separated 
by a funnel, filtered into a bottle, shaken up with some water acidulated with 
sulphuric acid, and then the chloroform recovered. This aqueous liquid gave 
an abundant precipitate with Sonnenschein’s reagent: it was rendered 
alkaline with carbonate of potash, and shaken up with ether. The ethereal 
solution contained all the base, as was indicated by the fact that the aqueous 
portion, upon reacidification, no longer gave a precipitate with the phospho- 
molybdate. The ether, which was colourless, was then shaken up with acidu¬ 
lated water, and the whole distilled in a water-bath. The acid solution re¬ 
maining gave an abundant yellowish precipitate with Sonnenschein’s reagent; 
neutralized with bicarbonate of soda, a dirty white precipitate with tannin, 
soluble in acetic acid ; a yellow flocculent precipitate with chloride of gold : 
a brown precipitate with solution of iodine in hydricdic acid : an orange- 
yellow precipitate with protochloride of iodine ; no precipitate, however, was 
observable either with perchloride of platinum or with solution of corrosive 
sublimate. 
The base itself is a substance very soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform, 
and even in water. Its aqueous solution possesses a strong acrid and bitter 
taste, and when suffered to evaporate spontaneously over oil of vitriol, has 
been observed to crystallize in radiating groups of needles, though this is not 
always the case, and it is generally obtained as a colourless gummy mass. It 
has a slight odour quite different from that of the plant, and is very decidedly 
alkaline to test-paper. Caustic alkalies destroy it rapidly, especially on appli¬ 
cation of heat, the solution becoming brown, and an alkaline vapour, probably 
ammonia, being evolved. Several of the characters here described agree 
with those given by Geiger, and mentioned in the ‘ Organic Chemistry ’ of 
Gerhardt. , 
Mr. Groves had made some experiments upon this alkaloid a few years since. His 
method of operation had differed from the author’s. He boiled the leaves of hyoscjamus 
with olive-oil, and then agitated the product with hydrochloric acid and water. From 
this he obtained a small quantity of a liquid principle with alkaline properties, which he 
regarded as the active constituent of this drug. 
Dr. Atteield thought that after this statement we must recognize two principles as 
being present. 
Mr. Eeynolds suggested that the root should be used in future experiments. 
Mr. Sutton alluded to Professor Donovan’s experiments as showing that the tincture 
of henbane was an inert preparation. He had swallowed it in doses of half an ounce 
without finding any inconvenience. 
The President remarked that the physiological question could not be followed far 
in that room, from its merging into considerations that were more within the province of 
the physician. 
Mr. Deane gave it as his opinion that the sedative effects of even small doses of hen¬ 
bane were beyond doubt in many cases, and he could not help thinking that some 
peculiar circumstances must have influenced the cases in which very large doses had been 
taken with impunity. 
Mr. Carteighe had made some preliminary experiments on the active principle of 
henbane, and as far as they went they confirmed Mr. Tilden’s results. 
