A£ptemberfi9io!'}     Scammony  and  Resin  Scammony.  433 
resin,  the  specimens  marked  I,  II,  III,  and  IV  in  the  tables  were 
prepared.  Number  I  came  to  us  labelled  "  Virgin  Scammony, 
elect."  In  its  physical  appearance  it  agreed  with  the  descriptions 
in  the  text-books.  It  was  of  a  greenish-brown  color,  very  brittle, 
and  its  lustre  would  have  been  classed  as  subresinous  in  mineralogy, 
since  the  fracture  was  almost  without  gloss.  It  was  also  of  a 
granular  or  porous  texture.  No  gross  impurities  were  visible,  such 
as  pebbles,  woody  matter,  etc.  In  our  opinion,  this  sample  was 
actually  the  exudate  from  Convolvulus  scammonia,  which  had  possi- 
bly been  freed  from  coarse  impurities  by  fusing  and  straining. 
A  purified  resin  obtained  by  extracting  a  portion  of  I  with 
alcohol,  precipitating  with  water,  etc.,  constitutes  specimen  II. 
Number  II  presented  an  appearance  entirely  different  from  I.  It 
was  of  a  yellowish-brown  color,  semitransparent,  not  very  odorous, 
and  its  lustre  was  markedly  resinous. 
III  was  prepared  by  percolating  a  lot  of  root  which  had  been 
labelled  "  True  Scammony  Root."  Microscopic  examinations  bore 
out  this  statement. 
IV  was  obtained  by  percolating  a  lot  of  drug  identified  as 
Ipomcea  orizabensis. 
These  samples  were  compared  with  three  products  marketed 
under  the  names  of  virgin  scammony  and  scammony  resins.  Speci- 
men V  was  labelled  "  Scammony  Resin  Virgin."  Its  appearance 
was  totally  different  from  that  of  I,  its  lustre  was  perfectly  resinous, 
its  color  dark  brown,  and  instead  of  being  porous,  the  pieces  were 
perfectly  homogeneous  like  ordinary  resin.  Its  odor,  moreover, 
was  cheese-like.  Judging  from  its  appearance,  and  more  especially 
from  its  physical  and  chemical  constants,  this  sample  was  wrongly 
labelled.    Before  use  it  was  purified  in  the  usual  way. 
Specimen  VI  was  labelled  "  True  Scammony  Resin,"  and  in  gen- 
eral appearance  was  identical  with  V.  This  sample  had  also  been 
misbranded. 
Sample  VII  was  labelled  "  Resin  Scammony."  In  appearance 
it  was  like  V  and  VI,  but  its  odor  was  slightly  like  pepper.  It  was 
examined  both  in  the  ordinary  state  in  which  it  was  received,  and 
after  having  been  purified,  the  purified  sample  constituting  speci- 
men VIII.  The  results  show  that  it  was  also  made  from  the  Mexi- 
can root,  and  therefore  was  wrongly  labelled. 
The  following  results  were  obtained  and  are  arranged  in  three 
tables.    Table  I  includes  moisture,  ash,  acid,  saponification  and  ester 
