ON  RUMICINE. 
153 
ger,  in  an  extremely  impure  state,  and  described  by  them  under 
the  name  of  lapathine  ;  they  extracted  the  roots  of  Rumex  ob- 
tusifolius,  first  with  ether  and  afterwards  with  alcohol,  and 
separated  the  lapathine  from  the  latter  extract ;  this  contains 
so  small  a  quantity  of  rumicine  that  they  did  not  even  recog- 
nize its  extremely  sensitive  reaction  with  alkalies. 
In  the  year  1834  Geiger  prepared  the  substance,  to  which  he 
gave  the  name  of  rumicine,  in  a  pure  state  from  the  root  of 
Rumex  patientia.  He  prepared  an  alcoholic  extract  of  the  root, 
and  this,  when  diluted  with  water,  threw  down  an  insoluble  body. 
The  ethereal  extract  of  this  body  furnished  a  brownish-yellow 
residue  when  evaporated,  and  this,  by  repeated  washing  with  al- 
cohol and  finally  with  ether,  was  converted  into  a  deep  yellow 
powder  with  a  greenish  tinge  (resin). 
From  dry  and  peeled  roots  Geiger  obtained  a  far  finer  rumi- 
cine, which,  as  he  remarks,  "  was  undistinguishable  by  the  eye 
from  the  rhabarbarine  previously  obtained  without  nitric  acid, 
&c,  (from  the  root  of  rhubarb)  ;  it  also  behaved  chemically 
exactly  like  that  body."  Afterwards  he  purified  the  rumicine 
by  digestion  with  nitric  acid  and  hydrated  oxide  of  lead  in  so- 
lution in  ether ;  the  rumicine  thus  obtained  was,  as  Geiger 
says,  of  a  beautiful  bright  yellow  color,  with  many  crystalline 
particles. 
Geiger  also  obtained  rumicine  from  Rumex  obtusifolius,  and 
remarks  that  this  plant  contains  very  little  of  it.  Geiger  is 
therefore  the  true  discoverer  of  rumicine,  and  on  first  preparing 
it  called  attention  to  its  near  relation  and  probable  identity 
with  rhabarbarine. 
In  1841  Eiegel  investigated  the  root  of  Rumex  obtusifolius, 
and  obtained  rumicine  from  it  in  a  tolerably  pure  state,  by  vari- 
ous methods,  including  those  of  Geiger  and  Vaudin  (the  latter 
recommended  his  method  for  the  preparation  of  rheine).  At 
last  he  prepared  rumicine  from  the  ethereal  extract  of  the  root, 
as  recommended  by  Brandes  for  the  preparation  of  the  yellow 
matter  of  rhubarb.  He  distilled  off  the  ethereal  extract,  fil- 
tered the  granular  crystalline  yellowish-brown  mass  deposited  in 
the  residue,  and  then  recrystallized  it  several  times  from  alcohol. 
The  latter  method  was  also  followed  by  the  author  essentially 
in  the  preparation  of  the  rumicine  which  served  for  his  analy- 
