Am'#eb.y'i£7arm'}         Gleanings  in  Materia  Medica.  79 
"decanting  and  evaporating  the  clear  liquid,  heating  the  residue  (lactu- 
cerin, resin  and  caoutchouc)  in  steam  and  extracting  with  boiling  alco- 
hol, the  mother-liquor  of  which  will  finally  retain  the  resin  with  some 
lactucerin.  The  crystals  of  the  latter  consist  of  two  esters  and  yield, 
with  warm,  alcoholic  potassa,  potassium  acetate  and  two  alcohols, 
Avhich  after  having  been  washed  with  water,  are  separated  by  boiling 
with  little  alcohol. 
a  lactucerol (formerly  called  lactuceryl  alcohol)  crystallizes  in  long,  silky 
needles,  is  sparingly  soluble  in  cold  alcohol,  acetone  and  glacial  acetic 
acid,  insoluble  in  water  and  alkalies,  and  freely  soluble  in  chloroform, 
-ether  and  ligroin,  from  which  solvents  it  crystallizes  anhydrous.  It 
melts  at  179°C,  may  be  distilled  in  a  current  of  carbonic  acid  gas, 
and  has  the  composition  C18H30O-hH2O.  Its  acetester  is  produced  by 
continued  heating  with  acetic  anhydride,  crystallizes  in  small  scales, 
melts  at  210°C,  and  is  freely  soluble  in  chloroform,  ether,  petroleum 
benzin,  and  in  boiling  alcohol  and  glacial  acetic  acid. 
ft  lactucerol  remains  in  the  alcoholic  mother-liquor  of  the  a  alcohol, 
-crystallizes  with  difficulty,  and  on  evaporation  is  obtained  as  a  gelatin- 
ous mass,  which  on  drying  forms  a  white  powder ;  from  ether  or 
chloroform  it  crystallizes  readily  in  long  needles  of  a  silvery  lustre, 
and  isomeric  with  the  preceding  compound. 
Lactucerin  prepared  as  stated  above,  is  a  mixture  of  the  two  esters 
in  varying  proportion,  and  its  melting  point  was  found  to  vary  be- 
tween 182°  and  207 °C.  Since,  on  heating,  acetic  acid  is  given  off,  it 
is  possible  that  Lenoir's  lactucon  obtained  in  1846,  may  mainly  con- 
sist of  lactucerin,  which  however  has  not  all  the  properties  attributed 
by  Lenoir  to  his  compound. 
Lactucon  obtained  by  Franchimont  (Berichte,  1879,  p.  10)  from 
French  lactucarium  prepared  from  Lactuca  altissima,  is  an  indifferent 
compound,  of  the  formula  CuH240,  melting  at  296 °C.  and  was  named 
gallacton  by  Hesse.  A  lactucon  obtained  by  Fliickiger  (Pharmaco- 
graphia,  2d  edition,  p.  398)  had  the  composition  C19H30O,  and  fused 
at  232°C. 
Hesse  observes  that  the  lactucerols  are  isomeric  with  sycocerol,  the 
acetester  of  which  was  found  by  Warren  de  la  Rue  and  Hugo  Miiller 
(Annalen,  vol.  116,  p.  225)  in  the  resin  of  Ficus  rubiginosa,  and  pos- 
sibly with  hydrocarotin  though  he  regards  the  latter  as  being  C20H34O 
and  isomeric  with  cinchol.  Ecliicerin  is  readily  saponified  by  alcoholic 
potassa,  but  the  alcohol  which  crystallizes  in  needles,  differs  from 
