ON  THE  NATURE  OF  SCAMMONY  AND  TURPETH  RESIN.  377 
the  infusion,  freshly  prepared  and  filtered,  into  common  bottles 
of  any  convenient  size,  up  to  the  bottom  of  the  neck.  These 
are  placed  in  a  vessel  of  water,  put  on  the  fire,  and  allowed  to 
remain  until  the  water  has  boiled  round  about  them  for  ten  or 
fifteen  minutes.  By  this  time  the  Infusions  will  be  found  to  be 
running  over  the  brims  of  the  bottles.  They  are  then  removed 
one  by  one,  and  immediately  closed  by  simply  tying  a  piece  of 
moistened  bladder  over  the  top. 
We  generally  prepare  as  much  of  each  infusion  as  will  last  for 
two  or  three  months ;  but  it  will  retain  for  years  the  fresh  taste 
and  aroma  of  its  ingredients.  You  will  find  on  the  table  a  sample 
of  infusion  of  senna  2j  years  old,  infusion  of  orange  17  months, 
and  chiretta,  senega,  and  calumba  about  three  months. 
The  advantages  of  this  plan  are  manifest,  and  hardly  require 
mention.  From  its  extreme  simplicity,  any  druggist  can  put  it 
in  practice  for  himself,  and  can  thus  always  command  an  infusion 
the  same  as  freshly  prepared,  superior  to  that  formed  by  the 
concentrated  infusion,  and  not  containing  any  spirit — a  matter 
occasionally  of  some  moment. 
Various  samples  of  infusions  prepared  in  the  manner  stated 
were  submitted  to  the  meeting  ;  some  of  them  had  been  pre- 
pared for  a  considerable  time,  and  appeared  as  fresh  and  good 
as  if  recently  made. — London  Pharm.  Jour.  May,  1859. 
ON  THE  NATUKE  OF  SCAMMONY  AND  TURPETH  RESIN 
By  Dr.  H.  Spirgatis,  of  Konigsburg. 
The  chemical  similarity  of  the  resins  of  the  Jalap  roots  from 
Ipomoea  jalapa  and  Convolvulus  orizabensis  led  to  the  supposi- 
tion of  a  similar  chemical  constitution  of  the  resins  obtained  from 
other  plants  belonging  to  the  family  of  Convolvulacese.* 
The  genuine  scammony  used  for  this  analysis  was  obtained 
from  Trieste,  and  was  in  light  cakes  of  a  greenish  gray  color, 
not  transparent,  without  lustre,  of  an  acrid  taste  and  a  peculiar 
bread-odor,  partly  soluble  in  water  to  a  greenish  turbid  solution, 
*  The  author  undertook  bis  analysis  in  1853,  and  Prof.  Buchner  based  on  its 
results  his  test  for  the  genuineness  of  scammony.  (See  Amer.  Jour,  of  Pharm., 
1854,  page  447.) 
