DIGITALIN  IN  AMERICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  DIGITALIS.  57 
This  precipitate  was  washed  with  a  small  quantity  of  water 
mixed  with  one  fluid-ounce  of  alcohol,  and  carefully  triturated  in 
a  mortar  with  one  drachm  of  litharge.  The  mixture  was  poured 
into  a  flask  of  one  pint  capacity,  and  mortar  rinsed  with  fresh 
spirit  several  times,  pouring  the  rinsings  into  the  flask  until  four 
fluid-ounces  were  obtained.  This  was  heated  up  to  160°  tempera- 
ture, and  maintained  at  that  point  for  one  hour.  Animal  char- 
coal one  drachm  was  added,  solution  was  filtered,  spirit  recovered 
by  distillation,  and  remaining  solution  evaporated  in  a  chemist's 
drying  oven,  at  a  temperature  which  did  not  exceed  one  hundred 
and  fifty  degrees. 
The  respective  yields  were  as  follows  : 
One  pound  of  English  digitalis  yielded  63*60  grains. 
"  American    "  "     65-01  " 
"  German      "  "      56-50  " 
This  would  equal  for  1000  parts — 
English  digitalis,       9-08  grains. 
American    "  9-30  " 
German      "  8-07  " 
The  difierence  between  the  American  and  other  varieties  I  can 
only  account  for  by  assuming  that  the  small  stalks  which  are 
packed  with  the  leaves  in  the  American  sample  contain  more  of 
the  alkaloid  than  the  leaves  in  proportion.  I  can  prove  this  to 
be  the  fact  from  my  experience  with  henbane  stalks  and  leaves. 
But  as  reasoning  by  analogy  is  at  best  insecure,  and  often  proves 
fallacious,  I  simply  give  you  the  facts  and  allow  you  to  draw 
your  own  conclusions. 
I  am  compelled  to  claim  for  our  home-grown  digitalis,  if 
rightly  dried  and  gathered,  superiority  instead  of  inferiority^  at 
least  reasoning  from  the  samples.  The  question  with  me  has  of 
late  often  arisen,  whether  it  is  well  to  reject  the  stipules  and 
stems ;  whether  we  do  not  lose  in  so  doing  what  contains  a 
greater  amount  of  alkaloid  than  the  leaf.  This  is  a  question 
which  w^ould  bear  investigation.  Both  my  English  and  German 
samples  were  simply  the  leaves,  while  the  American  was  leaves 
and  stalks,  such  as  the  Shakers  usually  put  up. 
Detroit,  Sept.  1,  1868. 
— Proc  Amer.  Pliarm.  Assoc. ^  1868, 
