THE PREPARATIONS OF CONIUM MACULATUM. 
453 
my experiments with the Tinctura Conii frucHs went far to prove that the pre- 
paration is practically an inert one. I may mention here that I have prescribed 
another specimen of this tincture in large doses with similarly negative results. 
I am informed by Mr. Hemingway that the fruit used in the preparation of the 
tincture employed in the experiments recorded in my former paper was grown 
near Prague; and that the whole of the conium fruit used in British phar- 
macy is obtained from Germany. Doubtless the German fruit is, to say the 
least, equally potent with that of British growth; and, as far as our present 
investigations are concerned, the use of the German fruit is the more appropriate, 
since it was most probably that employed by Geiger in his experiments. He 
states (Mag. fiir Pharm. xxxv.) that nine pounds of the dry ripe fruits yield one 
ounce of conia. Accordingly one ounce of the fruit should yield 3 grains of 
conia, and the quantity contained in f ^xx of the tinctura conii fructus—as¬ 
suming the fruit to be thoroughly exhausted of the alkaloid—would be 
grains = to 0*375 in f gj. Now Continental physicians prescribe conia in doses 
of -jJ^th of a grain for a child, and to 1 drop for an adult.^' Hence f 5 j 
of the tincture would be only a medium dose for an adult—assuming, as I have 
said, that it contain a quantity of conia equivalent to -oVth part of the fruit 
employed. It appears, therefore, that the quantity of fruit employed in the 
preparation of the tincture is much too small. But even if a much larger quan¬ 
tity were used, it is very doubtful whether the preparation would be an efficacious 
one, for two reasons:— 1 st, the active principle, although freely soluble in 
dilute spirit is effectually protected from its action by the horny albumen with 
which it is associated in the fruit,—a protection which is very inadequately 
removed by its comminution ; and, secondly, it is very probable that a large 
dose of alcohol taken.simultaneously with a small quantity of conia greatly 
diminishes the effects of the latter, but of this I hope to furnish further evidence 
by-and-by. 
In order to prove the quality of the fruit used in the tincture with which my 
experiments were made, I subjected one ounce avoirdupois to the following 
process for the extraction of conia. Having mixed it with an equal bulk of 
fine sand, I packed it loosely in the percolator, and passed, after previous mace¬ 
ration, alcoholic (spirit—containing 86*5 per cent, of alcohol—f Siv, water fliij, 
caustic potash 60 grains) and aqueous (water f^ij, caustic potash 60 grains) 
solutions of caustic potash through it, and subsequently alcohol, until it dropped 
through colourless. By this means, f 5 X of a turbid, brownish-green fluid, of the 
same depth of colour as the tincture of the leaf of the London Pharmacopoeia, 
w'ere obtained. This was exactly neutralized with sulphuric acid, and the sul¬ 
phate of potash separated by filtration. The filtrate was placed in a retort, and 
the whole of the alcohol and the chief bulk of the water distilled off. These 
distillates were perfectly free, both from ammonia and conia, and also from sul¬ 
phuric acid. About 5 iv of a blackish-brown syrupy fluid remained in the retort, 
and to this was added f 5 iv of aqueous solution of caustic potash, containing 
16 grains of the alkali. The mixture was exposed to a temperature of 248° 
Fahr., by means of a chloride of calcium bath, and the distillation rapidly con¬ 
ducted. Colourless water and minute drops of equally colourless oily fluid passed 
over. About f 5 vj were obtained in all, and a charred black mass, which, when 
cold, evolved an intensely acrid and ammoniacal odour, remained in the retort. 
The distillate contained about 2 grains of conia, but I was unable to deter¬ 
mine its exact weight, for it soon became opaquish, assumed a faint brownish 
tinge, and began to dissolve in the highly alkaline fluid upon which it floated. 
This latter assumed a brownish tinge. It possessed, but in a much greater 
Ann. de Thefap., 1853, p. 73 j Archiv. Gen. 4® Ser xsiii. 226. See also Wood and 
Baclie’s Disp. United States Pliarmacop. lltli cd. p. 295. 
