64 PROXIMATE CONSTITUENTS OF MALE FERN-ROOT. 
Treated with solution of caustic potash, it forms a greenish brown 
soap, which floats upon the solution. By treating the dissolved 
soap with muriatic acid, oleine and margaric acid could be se- 
parated according to Chevreul's method. From the mother-li- 
quor combined with the wash-waters, after the addition of sul- 
phuric acid and separation of the sulphate of potash, glycerine 
was obtained. With the acid nitrate of the protoxide of mer- 
cury, the oil solidified. With fuming nitric acid of 1*55 it like- 
wise formed a solid mass ; it consequently belongs to the non- 
siccative oils. 
All the constituents of the root arranged together give in — 
21 parts of ash, 
1*1 sulphate of lime. 
0*4 phosphate of magnesia (MgQ 
+P0 5 ) 
1*6 phosphate of lime (CaO+ 
PO'). 
2-2 chloride of calcium. 
04 chloride of sodium. 
1000 parts of dry root, 
0*4 essential oil. 
60-0 fat oil. 
10-0 stearine. 
40 -0 resin. 
100-0 starch. 
4-0 vegetable gelatine. 
35-0 albumen. 
33-0 gum. 
HO'O sugar. 
100*0 tannic and gallic acids 
21-0 pectine. 
15-0 amylaceous fibre. 
21-0 ash. 
450-6 fibre and loss. 
1000-0 
0*1 silica. 
9*4 carbonate of lime. 
5-5 carbonate of potash. 
0-3 loss and traces of perphos- 
phate of iron. 
21-0 
Chemical G-azette, Oct. 1, 1851, 
ON THE BEST MODE OF PREPARING THE JUICE OF DANDE- 
LION, SO THAT IT SHALL CONTINUE IN PERFECT PRESER- 
VATION THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. 
The following mode of preparing the juice of dandelion, ad- 
vised by Mr. Donovan (Dublin Medical Press, June 11th, 1851,) 
is worthy the attention of pharmaceutists : — 
" The dandelion abounds in a milky juice ; it has no smell ; its 
taste when recent is very bitter, the roots more so than the leaves. 
By drying, the bitterness is destroyed, as happens to many other 
vegetable substances. I have observed that the, juice of the recent 
