ON  THE  MILKY  JUICE  OF  LACTUCA  ELONGATA,  MUHL.  147 
time  reminding  of  the  odor  of  commercial  lactucarium.  It  is 
rather  tenacious  and  cannot  be  rubbed  into  powder  like  German 
and  English  lactucarium.  In  preparing  a  sjrup  from  it,  it  was 
for  this  reason  exhausted,  instead  of  by  displacement,  bj  re- 
peated digestion  in  dilute  alcohol;  otherwise  the  directions  of 
the  Pharmacopoeia  were  followed.  The  sjrup  (^i  to  Oi)  pos- 
sessed the  bitter  taste  of  the  officinal  syrup,  but  its  odor  was 
somewhat  different  and  its  color  rather  darker. 
240  grains  of  this  lactucarium,  exhausted  by  dilute  alcohol, 
left  a  residue  weighing  151  grains  ;  the  soluble  matter  therefore 
amounted  to  89  grains  or  37*5  per  cent.  This  result  is  inter- 
mediate between  the  amount  of  extract "  obtained  by  Messrs. 
Parrish  and  Bakes  from  German  and  English  lactucarium  ;  their 
sample  of  the  former  yielding  with  dilute  alcohol  36,  and  of  the 
latter  44  per  cent,  of  extract.  I  am  inclined  to  doubt  the  prac- 
ticability of  depending  upon  such  a  test  for  judging  of  the  quality 
of  lactucarium,  which,  like  opium,  does  not  represent  the  sap 
proper  of  the  plant,  but  the  contents  of  certain  vessels,  frequent- 
ly at  certain  periods  only  of  the  life  of  the  plants.  The  amount 
of  soluble  matter  in  pure  opium  is  mostly  within  certain  limits, 
but  it  has  no  relation  whatever  to  the  amount  of  morphia  or 
other  constituents  ;  and  this  is  undoubtedly  true  also  of  lactuca- 
rium, the  relative  proportion  of  the  constituents  varying  from 
different  causes,  as  appears  to  be  indicated  by  the  researches  of 
Ludwig,  Kromayer  and  others. 
The  syrup  prepared  from  my  American  lactucarium  did  not 
possess  the  same  stability  during  our  hot  season,  as  officinal  syrup 
prepared  from  German  lactucarium.  The  former  had  a  tendency 
to  ferment,  so  thafit  was  found  necessary  to  add  a  small  amount 
of  Hoffmann's  anodyne  ;  a  sample,  however,  which  was  allowed 
to  ferment,  possessed  afterwards  the  original  bitterness  unim- 
paired. 
A  portion  of  the  syrup  from  American  lactucarium  was  placed 
in  the  hands  of  Dr.  J.  M.  Da  Costa,  of  this  city,  who  was  kind 
enough  to  try  it  in  his  private  practice,  and  informed  me  that  it 
had  been  used  with  decided  benefit  by  several  ladies  requiring 
sedatives ;  on  account  of  the  crowded  condition  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Hospital,  it  was  not  used  in  that  institution. 
