Am.  Jour  Pharm. ) 
Dec,  1881.  ; 
Phytolaccce  JBaccce. 
which  contains  one  black  and  glossy  seed.  The  thin  pericarp  is  of  a 
blackish-purple  color  and  contains  a  dark  purplish-red  juice.  The 
berries  are  inodorous  and  have  a  disagreeable,  mawkish  and  somewhat 
acrid  taste.  When  dried  on  the  stalk,  they  resemble  raisins  in  their 
appearance  and  for  this  reason  were  called  American  raisins  when 
introduced  into  Europe. 
A  proximate  analysis  of  the  berries  was  undertaken,  having  as  its 
first  object  the  ascertainment  of  the  nature  of  the  coloring  matter. 
Several  pounds  of  the  fresh,  ripe  berries,  freed  from  peduncles  and 
pedicles,  were  subjected  to  pressure  until  entirely  deprived  of  their 
purplish-red  juice.  To  it  a  solution  of  acetate  of  lead  was  gradually 
added  until  all  of  the  color  was  precipitated.  The  precipitate  was 
collected  on  a  filter  and  the  filtrate,  freed  from  the  excess  of  lead,  was 
found  colorless  as  well  as  tasteless.  It  was  evaporated  to  one-tenth  of 
its  bulk ;  on  boiling  it  did  not  gelatinize,  nor  give  a  precipitate  on  the 
addition  of  alcohol ;  alkaloid  tests  gave  no  reaction,  but  Fehling's  test 
proved  it  to  contain  considerable  sugar. 
The  lead  precipitate,  after  being  well  washed,  Avas  suspended  in 
water  and  a  stream  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen  passed  through  it.  The 
sulphide  of  lead  was  collected  on  a  filter,  but  the  filtrate,  which  was 
;  expected  to  be  a  solution  of  all  the  dark-red  coloring  matter  origin- 
ally contained  in  the  juice,  was  only  of  a  very  light  red  color.  What 
became  of  the  large  quantity  of  color  was  and  is  a  mystery.  Certainly 
none  of  it  adhered  to  the  sulphide  of  lead,  for  this  was  well  washed 
with  hot  water  and  then  with  alcohol  and  the  washings  were  found 
colorless.  In  order  to  be  more  convincing,  the  same  experiment  was 
tried  a  second  time,  but  with  a  larger  quantity  of  juice,  and  gave  the 
same  results — the  red  color  disappeared  under  the  experimenter's  hands, 
but  gave  no  clue  to  the  direction  of  its  exit. 
Making,  therefore,  no  further  investigation  in  regard  to  the  coloring 
matter,  the  filtrate — which  had  caused  such  sad  disappointment — was 
evaporated  to  an  extract ;  it  was  soluble  in  water ;  the  solution,  when 
boiled,  did  not  gelatinize,  but  the  addition  of  alcohol  gave  a  precipi- 
tate which,  when  dissolved  in  a  small  quantity  of  water  and  evapor- 
ated, did  not  crystallize  nor  show  any  action  with  the  alkaloid  tests, 
and  was  therefore  probably  gum. 
To  the  remainder  of  the  extract  ether  was  added,  the  mixture  well 
stirred,  the  ethereal  solution  decanted  and  allowed  to  evaporate  spon- 
taneously, when,  after  twenty-four  hours,  some  fine  needle-like  crys- 
