114 
ON HYDRASTIS CANADENSIS. 
Gallic Acid. The muriatic tincture of iron yielded a greenish 
precipitate, indicating tannic or gallic acids, hut solutions of qui- 
nia and of gelatin producing no change in the lixivium, it was in- 
ferred that gallic acid alone was present. 
Starch. The dregs remaining on the filter were next boiled in 
water for about fifteen minutes and allowed to cool. To the fil- 
tered decoction, a few drops of tincture of iodine were added, 
which produced the color characteristic of the presence of 
starch. 
Fatty Resin. One ounce of the powdered root was subjected 
to the action of sulphuric ether for a week, and then filtered. The 
tincture, but slightly colored, yielded on evaporation a fatty resin 
insoluble in water, and almost tasteless. 
Yellow Coloring Matter. A tincture was made by digesting 
two ounces of the bruised root in eight ounces of alcohol for three 
days. The filtered liquor was of a reddish-brown color, less bitter 
than the aqueous infusion by maceration, but still possessing in a 
marked degree, the strong narcotic odor. 
On evaporation to dryness, it yielded a fine garnet colored ex- 
tract, partly soluble in water, imparting to that menstruum a bril- 
liant yellow color. 
To the alcoholic tincture a solution of bicloride of tin was added, 
forming a most brilliant yellow precipitate. The same test added 
to the aqueous infusion produced a dirty yellow precipitate, 
much inferior, in brilliancy of color, to that obtained from the al- 
coholic tincture. 
Aqueous Extract. Ten thousand grains of the bruised root 
were macerated in cold water as long as the liquid exhibited a 
bitter taste. This was next evaporated on a water bath to about a 
pint, and filtered, to separate the coagulated albumen and oxyge- 
nated matter that had precipitated. It was again carefully evapo- 
rated to dryness, yielding a deep brown extract weighing 1920 
grains. 
Dry Acrid Resin. The residuum left on the filter in the above 
experiment, was dried at a temperature of between 90° and 100° 
Fahr. ; then treated with rectified alcohol. A light brown colored 
tincture was obtained, which on being evaporated to dryness 
yielded 140 grains of a dry and brittle resin, of a disagreeable 
soapy and bitterish taste, leaving a strong acrid impression in the 
fauces. 
