334 
ECLECTIC PHARMACY. 
My object in the foregoing remarks has not been to add to 
the facts already known upon the chemical history of May-apple, 
so much as to introduce to the profession, a pharmaceutical 
preparation and process for preparing it, which I think offers 
some advantages over the extract in common use, and is at least 
worthy of a trial at the hands of scientific physicians, in order 
that its real merits may appear. 
Experiment upon Black Snake Root- — Following the process 
spoken of in the essay quoted above, I submitted two pounds of 
black snake root or cohosh, to the action of alcohol by the dis- 
placement process. A large quantity of alcohol was necessary 
to exhaust it in this way, which was partially recovered by the 
use of a tin retort, and Liebig's condenser ; after obtaining the 
tincture in a concentrated form, measuring about twelve fluid 
ounces, it was mixed with twice its bulk of water and the alcohol 
evaporated off. The resinous deposit being collected, was a 
shining mass of a dull garnet color, translucent along the edges. 
It possessed a faint odor with the peculiar taste of the root in a 
high degree ; when powdered, it resembled in color the resin ob- 
tained from podophyllum. This is the preparation called by Mer- 
rill , Macrotin, from the name given to Cimieifuga in Eaton's 
Manual, " Macrotys Raeemosa." 
The proportion obtained from two pounds of the root was 
about one and a half ounces, (av.), and the residue upon evapora- 
tion after the precipitation of the resin from the tincture, weighed 
two and three quarters ounces, (av.), so that the root yielded fo u r 
and three quarters per cent, of the precipitated resin, and would 
have yielded thirteen and a quarter per cent, of alcoholic extract. 
The dose is stated, by Merrill, at from one to six grains in the 
course of the day, given in pills. The reputation this root has 
attained, especially in the treatment of chorea, leaves little room 
to doubt that such a preparation would be a useful addition to 
the material of our practitioners. 
The resin obtained in this way from Leptandra virginica 
or Black root, is I believe a discovery or invention of the author 
I have quoted ; very little is known of the medical properties 
of this root among regular practitioners, but if his account be 
credited "its medicinal action is that of cholagogue, and hepatic, 
with but feeble cathartic powers, and acting in small doses as a 
tonic on the prhnas ; it hence fills a previously existing blank 
