Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
Nov.,  1881.  I 
Ergotin. 
563 
method.  The  filtrate,  before  concentration,  was  tested  with  alcohol  of 
specific  gravity  0*835,  an  equal  volume  of  which  occasioned  no  fur- 
ther precipitate.  The  filtrate  was,  however,  somewhat  lighter  in  color 
than  that  from  set  A.  The  precipitate  had  the  same  character  as  that 
obtained  from  set  A  by  Bonjean's  (?)  metliod. 
German  Pharmacopoeia  Metliod. — Following  this  method  exactly, 
with  another  fraction  of  the  aqueous  extract  of  ergot  from  set  A, 
with  the  exception  that  the  precipitate  was  thoroughly  washed  with 
alcohol  of  50*4  per  cent.,  a  quantity  of  ergotin  was  obtained  which, 
when  calculated  for  the  whole  quantity  of  set  A,  corresponded  to  4,120 
grains,  Again,  comparing  this  yield  with  that  obtained  from  the  same 
set  by  Bonjean's  (?)  method,  set  B  would  have  yielded  442*5  grains ; 
set  C,  147  grains  ;  making  a  total  of  4,709  grains,  or  21*80  per  cent. 
The  ergotin  obtained  by  this  method  could  in  no  way  be  distinguished 
from  the  ergotin  obtained  by  Bonjean\s  (?)  or  Carles'  methods,  except 
that  it  was,  perhaps,  a  shade  darker  when  spread  in  thin  layers.  It 
had  the  same  odor  and  dissolved  with  equal  facility.  Deducting  ten 
per  cent,  for  the  moisture  retained,  it  represents  4,308  grains  of  4,713 
grains  of  total  dry  extract  in  the  forty-five  ounces  of  ergot.  The 
precipitate,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the  yield  of  ergotin,  was  very 
small.  As  in  the  other  cases,  it  was  thick  liquid  and  brown.  The 
calculated  quantity  of  dry  substance  represented  by  this  liquid  precip- 
itate is  476  grains. 
By  referring  to  the  foregoing  it  will  be  found  that  M.  Bonjean 
obtained  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  per  cent,  of  ergotin ;  M.  Carles 
obtained  only  from  eight  to  nine  per  cent. ;  and  the  German  Pharma- 
copoeia process  yields,  according  to  Dr.  H.  Hager,  from  fourteen  to 
eighteen  per  cent.  My  results  do  not  correspond  with  any  of  these 
figures,  since  I  obtained  by  the  method  provisionally  adopted  as  Bon- 
jean's,  11*57  per  cent. ;  by  that  of  Carles,  in  the  manner  carried  out 
by  me,  11*05  per  cent. ;  and  by  the  process  of  the  German  Pharma- 
copceia,  also  modified  in  that  the  precipitate  was  washed  out  with  a 
further  quantity  of  the  precipitant,  21*8  per  cent.  As  regards  the 
first  two,  the  yields  show  that  there  is  practically  no  difference  between 
Carles'  method,  employing  a  stronger  alcohol  (77*27  per  cent.),  and 
the  method  adopted  by  me  as  Bonj can's,  employing  a  weaker  alcohol 
sixty-five  per  cent.).  Nevertheless,  there  must  be  a  difference  between 
this  method,  claimed  to  be  Bonjean's,  and  Bonjean's  original  njethod 
of  proceeding,  since  Bonjean  obtained  a  yield  approximating  to  that 
