314 
ACONITIA  AND  PSEUDO-ACONITIA. 
water,  is  in  some  cases  much  more  reliable  than  the  powdered ; 
thus  patients  suffering  with  a  spasmodic  cough  were  much  re- 
lieved by  2  one  grain  doses,  taking  morning  and  evening.  M. 
— Zeitseh.  d.  oesterr :  Apoth.  Ver.  1869,  41-42. 
ON  ACONITIA  AND  PSEUDO-ACONITIA. 
By  M.  F.  Hubschmann. 
M.  Hubschmann  has  made  a  comparative  study  of  aconitia 
found  in  English  commerce  and  that  prepared  by  himself  by  the 
process  of  Geiger. 
The  aconitia  extracted  by  him  from  the  fresh  roots  of  aconite 
with  blue  flowers,  collected  in  Switzerland,  presents  the  form  of 
an  amorphous  white  powder,  not  adhering  to  paper.  It  has  a 
decided  bitterness,  but  little  acrimony,  is  alkaline,  and  burns 
without  leaving  a  residue.  It  is  soluble  in  two  parts  of  ether, 
2*60  of  chloroform,  and  in  4*25  of  alcohol.  Each  of  these  three 
solvents  leaves  an  amorphous,  colorless  mass,  of  a  vitreous  non- 
crystalline appearance.  Benzine  softens  it  to  a  resinous  mass 
and  slowly  dissolves  it.  Heat  causes  it  to  dissolve  quickly.  In 
boiling  water  it  is  softened  and  becomes  hard  and  brittle  on 
cooling.  Sulphuric  acid  dissolves  it  and  is  colored  yellow,  which 
is  not  changed  on  the  addition  of  nitrate  of  potassa. 
English  aconitia  is,  to  the  contrary,  a  fine  powder,  very  ad- 
herent to  paper,  dirty  white  colored  and  burning  without  residue. 
It  is  but  little  soluble  in  ether,  cold  or  hot,  but  the  ethereal  so- 
lution by  evaporation  deposits  little  white  crystals.  It  requires 
250  parts  of  chloroform  for  solution,  and  this,  on  evaporation, 
yields  little  crystals.  Twenty  parts  of  boiling  alcohol  dissolve 
English  aconitia,  which  crystallizes  by  cooling.  Cold  benzine 
don't  dissolve  or  affect  it.  When  heated  it  dissolves  and  is  pre- 
cipitated by  cooling,  partly  in  crystals  and  partly  amorphous. 
It  is  not  colored  by  sulphuric  acid  pure,  or  with  nitrate  of  po- 
tassa. 
If  it  is  admitted  that  English  aconitia  is  really  extracted  from  a 
variety  of  aconite  (a  point  which  is  not  clearly  proven  to  the 
author.)  It  is  certain  that  it  has  no  more  claim  to  be  aconitia 
than  narcotin  has  to  be  morphia. — Jour,  de  Pharm,,  Mai,  1869, 
from  Jour.  D'Anvers. 
