AN ESSAY ON LACTUCARIUM. 
35 
where the combined use of the two agents seems to be indi- 
cated. The instantaneous action of the dissolvent would 
enable us, in a case of necessity, to prepare this ethereal 
tincture extempore. 
Treatment with •Alcohol. 
The dissolvent power of alcohol on lactucarium resem- 
bles that of ether in a greater degree in proportion to the 
greater concentration of the former. The result of this in- 
contestible truth is that we are obliged to have recourse to 
alcohol at 21°, as the pharmacopolist of Clermont proposes, 
when we wish to act upon this body by means of alcohol. 
These treatments with alcohol need not be several times 
repeated; the first treatment carries of! almost the whole of 
the principles that can be combined with weak alcohol. 
Thus, after twenty-four hours maceration, 8 grammes of 
lactucarium yielded to 60 of hydro-alcohol at 21°, 3 grammes 
of a dry extract, of a clear brown color, while a second dose 
produced only 50 centigrammes ; and this was almost all 
that alcohol at that degree of concentration could extract from 
the lactucarium. We must add to this observation that the 
second product bore scarcely any resemblance to the first, 
although the bitterness was very decided. The alcohol of 
this second operation, also, had no resemblance to that of 
the first ; it was milky white ; that of the first was deeply 
colored, and rather clouded. A third addition of alcohol 
left all the matter upon which it could act upon the filter, 
so that the alcohol was quite milky before the filtration, 
and perfectly colorless afterwards. That which was left in 
the capsule was almost insignificant, its weight being not 
more than 5 centigrammes. 
As to the residue, it was no longer bitter, it was insipid. 
But, if it be acted on by 8 grammes of ether, it makes it 
bitter and tenacious, and gives up so much of its substance, 
that 75 centigrammes of dry and almost inert matter re- 
mains on the filter. The dissolved matter that remains in 
