ON  CHBLIDONIUM  MAJUS. 
siderable  repute  in  regular  and  domestic  practice,  and  wMcli 
belong  to  the  same  natural  order  as  celandine.  The  following 
comprises  the  chemical  history  of  the  latter  plant  : 
Chevallier  and  Lassaigne  subjected,  in  1817,  the  juice  to 
chemical  analysis,  but  although  they  supposed  the  presence  of 
an  alkaloid,  they  were  unable  to  isolate  it ;  among  the  inorganic 
constituents  they  found  organic  limesalts,  phosphate  of  lime, 
nitrate  of  potassa  and  chloride  of  potassium  ;  also  albumen. 
No  better  results  were  obtained  by  Godefroy  in  1824,  who  sup- 
posed the  acrid  principle  to  be  volatilized  on  distilling  with 
water.  The  analysis  of  Dr.  Probst,  of  Heidelberg,  published 
in  1838,  is  still  the  most  complete  one  which  we  possess  of  the 
various  parts  of  celandine. 
He  proved  the  presence  of  chelidonina,  chelerythrina,  cheli- 
donic  acid,  and  a  yellow  coloring  matter,  chelidoxanthin.  The 
largest  amount  of  the  first  three  bodies  he  found  in  the  root. 
40  pounds  of  the  fresh  herb  yielded  him  but  one  grain  of  cheli- 
donina, which  is  the  bitter  alkaloid,  and  crystallizes  best  in  a 
free  state  from  a  solution  in  acetic  acid.  Chelidonic  acid  re- 
sembles citric  acid  in  its  behaviour  to  limesalts.  Chelerythrina 
is  the  acrid  alkaloid  of  celandine,  and  was  discovered  by  the 
same  chemist  in  1840,  likewise  in  the  root  of  Glaucium  luteum, 
another  papaveraceous  plant,  and  announced  by  him  as  identical 
with  sanguinarina,  discovered  by  Dana.  The  identity  of  these 
two  alkaloids  was  proven  by  elementary  analysis,  by  Dr.  James 
Schiel,  of  St.  Louis,  in  1855. 
Chelidoxanthin  is  precipitated  by  acetate  of  lead  together 
with  chelidonic  acid,  and  after  decomposition  by  sulphuretted 
hydrogen  the  latter  is  dissolved  by  water,  the  former  extracted 
from  the  sulphide  of  lead  by  hot  alcohol  ;  it  has  a  very  bitter 
taste,  and,  according  to  Probst,  probably  imparts  to  the  flower? 
their  yellow  color. 
Other  analyses  by  Leo  Meyer,  John,  Polex  and  Reuling  agree 
in  their  main  results  with  the  above,  though  they  were  generally 
not  so  successful.  Lerch  found  free  malic  acid  and  the  largest 
proportion  of  chelidonic  acid  at  the  time  of  flowering.  He  as- 
certained in  1847  that  it  is  a  tribasic  acid,  of  the  composition 
3H0,  Cj^  H^  -f  2Aq  ;  the  monobasic  salts  are  of  a  lemon 
yellow  color,  only  those  with  the  alkalies  are  readily  soluble  in 
water  and  crystallizable. 
