178  Parthenium  Hysterophorous.         {Am ^jg ;1p897arm' 
The  process  followed  with  best  results  was  treating  an  infusion 
with  lead  acetate,  filtering  and  agitating  the  filtrate  with  chloroform, 
distillation  of  the  chloroformic  extract,  thereby  recovering  the  sol- 
vent. The  residue,  by  crystallization  once  or  twice  from  alcohol,  to 
which  a  small  quantity  of  water  had  been  added,  was  obtained  pure 
in  well-formed  crystals — some  5  centimeters  long — melting  at  1680- 
1690  C.  The  yield  of  pure  substance  from  drug  collected  in  June 
and  July  was  about  I  per  cent. 
It  proved  soluble  in  160  parts  water,  at  200  C;  5  parts  95  per 
cent,  alcohol ;  23^  parts  boiling  alcohol;  no  parts  ether,  and  in 
chloroform  and  acetic  ether.  It  was  soluble  both  in  solution  of  soda 
and  in  ammonia  water,  the  former  solution  turning  red-brown  on 
standing,  the  latter  remaining  colorless.  It  dissolved  in  concen- 
trated sulphuric  acid  without  change  of  color,  but  the  solution 
became  green  on  the  addition  of  a  crystal  of  potassium  bichro- 
mate. 
The  aqueous  solution  was  neutral  to  litmus  paper. 
That  it  is  not  an  alkaloid  was  shown  by  the  non-appearance  of  a 
precipitate  on  addition  of  Mayer's  reagent  to  its  aqueous  solution, 
as  well  as  by  its  solubility  in  solution  of  soda. 
It  failed  to  respond  to  tests  for  nitrogen,  namely,  heating  with 
soda-lime  and  also  heating  with  metallic  potassium,  and  attempted 
conversion  of  the  fused  mass  into  Prussian  blue  by  treatment  with 
alkali,  ferrous  sulphate,  ferric  chloride  and  hydrochloric  acid  ;  while 
Schbnn's  test  for  sulphur  gave  negative  results. 
The  substance  has  been  analyzed  and  the  empirical  formula  de- 
duced therefrom,  but  this  will  not  be  stated  until  confirmed  by  an 
estimation  of  molecular  weight  and  by  analysis  of  derivatives. 
The  substance  not  being  an  alkaloid,  the  name  parthenin  can  be 
safely  bestowed  upon  it. 
The  rather  superficial  examination  made  by  the  writer  in  1889 
suggested  the  glucosidal  character  of  parthenin.  Careful  investiga- 
tion does  not,  however,  confirm  this  surmise.  As  a  glucoside,  par- 
thenin should,  under  the  action  of  a  diluted  acid,  be  converted  into 
glucose  and  some  other  body.  This,  as  experiment  showed,  does  not 
occur,  although  the  reaction  was  attempted  in  two  different  ways.  In 
the  first  method,  several  portions  of  parthenin  were  heated  with 
diluted  sulphuric  acid  for  periods  varying  from  boiling  for  one  minute 
to  heating  on  water-bath  for  four  hours.  The  liquid  in  each  case,  after 
