292 
Verba  Del  Polio. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1897. 
ate  of  potassium  or  sodium.  The  dried  plant  also  yielded  chloro- 
phyll when  treated  with  ether. 
In  short,  the  Yerba  del  Polio  contains  the  following  principles : 
In  the  juice,  acetic  acid. 
In  the  extract,  ammonium  acetate,  potassium  chloride,  albumi- 
noids, vegetable  albumin,  chlorophyll,  extractive  and  cellulose. 
In  his  paper  about  this  plant,  Padre  Alzate  owned  that  he 
believed  the  hemostatic  influence  of  a  mucilaginous  plant  could 
never  be  accounted  for.  Mr.  Touraine  proposed  to  seek  and  isolate 
the  active  principle.  Some  four  years  ago  we  determined  to  solve 
the  problem,  and  undertook  a  series  of  experiments,  that  were  too 
long  to  enumerate,  since  there  are  no  fixed  rules  for  arriving  at  an 
absolutely  correct  result,  and  determining  certainly  which  one  of 
these  principles  is  the  active  one. 
We  can  assert  from  the  present  moment,  with  regard  to  the 
extract,  that  it  is  not  the  extractive,  chlorophyll,  ammonium  ace- 
tate or  vegetable  albumin.  There  remain  the  potassium  chloride 
and  the  proteid  principle,  though  it  may  be  questioned  if  either  of 
these  has  any  hemostatic  properties.  We  have  seen,  however,  that 
the  wet  powder  of  the  plant  and  the  solution  of  the  extract  are 
most  active  hemostatics,  and  the  analysis  points  out  no  principle 
worthy  of  notice  in  this  connection  but  these  two,  so  that  it  seems 
rational  to  attribute  the  hemostatic  properties  to  them. 
If  it  is  the  proteid  principle  and  potassium  chloride  which  act, 
in  what  manner  is  it  ?  The  question  is  rather  difficult  to  solve, 
since  proteid  principles  are  of  a  very  complex  nature,  and  their 
molecules  stand  in  such  unstable  equilibrium  that  the  slightest 
modification  in  the  conditions  of  their  existence  suffices  to  decom- 
pose them.  Such  are  the  albuminoid  principles  of  Commelina,  of 
blood,  and  of  animal  cells.  We  have  observed  in  the  analytical  part 
with  regard  to  the  Commelina,  that  an  elevation  of  temperature,  the 
presence  of  alkali  hydrates  or  their  carbonates  suffice  to  alter  it, 
heat  transforms  it  into  an  insoluble  principle  and  a  small  quantity 
of  ammonium  acetate. 
We  need  say  nothing  about  blood,  for  its  composition  and  alter- 
ability  are  perfectly  well  known,  except  to  make  the  following 
quotation  from  Mialhe  :  "  The  three  principal  liquids  of  the  animal 
•economy,  chyle,  lymph  and  blood,  are,  when  normal,  alkaline." 
With  regard  to  contractibility  of  capillary  vessels,  we  will  quote 
