ON THE ETHERIAL OIL OP ERGOT. 
95 
white glass tubes, rods, retorts, matrasses, test glasses, adapt- 
ers, gas receivers, florence flasks, porcelain, capsules and fun- 
nels, together with a blowpipe and platina crucible, without 
which a laboratory would be incomplete. 
ART. XXI, — NOTE UPON THE ETHERIAL OIL OF ERGOT. 
By Augustine Duhamel. 
The January number of the Journal of Pharmacy contains 
an article upon the oil of ergot, taken from the Edinburgh 
Med. and Surg. Jour., in which two methods are referred to 
for obtaining it. Having, at the time of perusing this publi- 
cation, an order to procure the oil for the use of some 
Practitioners of Homeopathy, and desirous of testing the na- 
ture of the product afforded by the ethereal process, an expe- 
riment was made with the following result. 
One pound of ergot in fine powder was put into a displace- 
ment filter, and treated with successive portions of sulphuric 
ether, amounting in all to half a gallon. To prevent the eva- 
poration of the ether, the filter was covered over with a wet- 
ted bladder. When the whole of the tincture had passed, 
which was of a reddish yellow color, it was placed over a 
water bath, and heat applied until no more ether remained. 
The product measured six ounces, and consisted of a fixed, vis- 
cous, reddish brown, transparent oil. Previous to the ether 
being wholly evaporated, there appeared to be two oils, the 
supernatent one being a thick, blackish oil, the other a much 
less colored, but heavier oil. The temperature of the bath, 
however, caused them to blend together as the ether parted 
from them. 
Upon testing some of its properties the following facts were 
elicited. Its taste was precisely similar to castor oil, leaving 
a slight acridity: odor faint, resembling ergot; spec. grav. .869. 
