40 Selected Articles, 
acid and precipitating it by ammonia, salseparine is obtained, 
which may be crystallized. 
It is therefore erroneous to bestow four names on the same 
substance; smilacine, salseparine and parillinic acid, are 
identical with the parilline of M. Palotta, to whom the credit 
of the discovery of this substance is due; the others have 
merely given new processes, of which that of M. Thubeuf is 
the best. 
M. Poggiale then gives the results of a great number of 
analyses of these substances, showing that the elementary 
composition of the whole of them is the same, namely, C 8 H 18 
O 3 + (H 3 O.) He adopts the name of salseparine as being 
the best. 
The action of acids on this substance is interesting. The 
author goes on to say : We are as yet not acquainted with 
any unazotized body which saturates acids and forms salts 
with them. Notwithstanding this, I at one time thought that 
salseparine formed an exception, as very diluted acids dis- 
solve it completely : if this substance be crystallized in an 
acid fluid, the form of the crystals will differ according to 
the acid made use of. Hydrochloric acid affords them in 
silky tufts, sulphuric in small prisms. Potash, soda, ammonia 
&c. cause an abundant precipitate when added to a concen- 
trated acid solution of salseparine. It might be supposed 
that in this case the alkali removed the acid which was com- 
bined with the salseparine ; but there is evidently no chemi- 
cal combination of these bodies; if the salseparine be preci- 
pitated when an alkali is added, it is because this latter 
combines with the acid, without whose aid the salseparine is 
not soluble. If the salseparine, treated with sulphuric acid, 
be washed two or three times with water, the last washings 
do not redden litmus paper, whilst the salseparine which re- 
mains on the filter, on being dissolved in alcohol, is precipi- 
tated by barytes water. This character led me to think that 
the acid was really combined with the sulphuric acid. A 
closer investigation completely changed my views. If salse- 
parine crystallized from very diluted sulphuric acid, be 
washed for a long time, it will become obvious that the acid 
