ON THE BITTER PRINCIPLE OF ARTEMISIA ABSINTHIUM. 359 
distilled in the water-bath ; the residue consists of a viscid mixture 
of a blackish-brown acid resin and absinthine. On treating it 
with water to which a few drops of ammonia have been added, 
the black smeary resin is principally taken up, and the greater 
portion of the absinthine left behind. 
In proportion as it becomes purer it acquires a pulverulent form. 
On adding a further quantity of ammonia, absinthine is also dis- 
solved; but on triturating with concentrated ammonia, far less 
passes into solution, because the compound of ammonia with ab- 
sinthine is very sparingly soluble in ammonia. 
To remove the ammonia, it is now digested with dilute hydro- 
chloric acid, then washed with water, dissolved in alcohol, and 
solution of acetate of lead mixed with it as long as any turbidity 
results, filtered, and sulphuretted hydrogen passed into the liquid 
in order to decompose the excess of the lead salt. The alcoholic 
solution filtered from the sulphuret of lead is mixed with a small 
quantity of water, allowed to evaporate slowly in a warm place, 
when the absinthine separates in yellow resinous drops. These 
are soft, become coated when mixed with water with an opake 
membrane, and in the course of some weeks all the drops become 
converted into hard masses, which externally are jagged and 
rough; internally, radiate and indistinctly crystalline. 
The color is brownish-yellow to yellow ; when pulverized, it 
furnishes a yellowish powder, of a faint, disagreeable, bitter odor 
of wormwood ; it has an intensely bitter taste, is sparingly soluble 
in water, and melts in boiling water. It dissolves readily in alco- 
hol, somewhat less in ether, and is likewise soluble in concen- 
trated acetic acid, from which it is partially precipitated by water. 
It has a tolerably acid reaction, and dissolves, as above stated, 
somewhat in an aqueous solution of ammonia, but far more readily 
in caustic potash, with a golden-yellow color. Cold sulphuric 
acid dissolves it at first with a reddish-yellow color, which, how- 
ever, quickly turns indigo-blue by exposure to the air, apparently 
with absorption of oxygen. Water produces in this blue solution 
a dirty gray-green flocculent precipitate, and the supernatant 
liquid is of a rose color. After the flakes have been washed on 
the filter with water, they dissolve readily in alcohol with a yellow 
color, but sparingly in ether. This substance has no longer a 
bitter taste; and its spirituous solution leaves on evaporation a 
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