MEDICINAL  ACONITIA  AND  ITS  SUBSTITUTES.  101 
tinctures  of  the  root,  in  cases  requiring  the  external  use  of 
aconite.  In  the  manufacture  of  organic  chemical  products  very 
much  is  added  to  their  cost  by  the  complications  and  loss  ren- 
dered necessary  or  unavoidable  in  their  purification  from  color- 
ing matter,  or  strongly  adherent  resinous  or  other  inert 
substances  in  minute  quantity,  which,  whilst  their  presence 
impairs  the  market  value  of  the  chemicals,  often  do  not  greatly 
reduce  their  medicinal  power.  In  asking  the  attention  of 
pharmaceutists  to  the  following  modification  of  Headland's  pro- 
cess for  aconitia,  it  is  with  the  view  of  furnishing  them  with  a 
practicable  means  of  supplying  their  own  wants  in  regard  to  this 
potent  alkaloid. 
It  is  proper  to  premise  that  aconite  root  contains  a  green 
fixed  oil,  solid  below  70*^  Fahr.,  which  it  is  important  to  remove 
entirely  from  the  solution,  before  attempting  to  extract  the 
alkaloid  by  the  agency  of  ether,  a  precaution  only  partially 
carried  out  in  the  published  process  of  Dr.  Headland.  When  a 
tincture  of  aconite  root  in  alcohol  of  sp.  gr.  -835,  whether  pre- 
pared in  the  cold  by  percolation  or  by  digestion  at  the  tempera- 
ture of  boiling  alcohol,  as  recommended  by  Headland,  is  evapo- 
rated to  one  half  the  weight  of  the  root  treated,  a  quantity  of 
the  green  fatty  oil  above  noticed,  separates  and  floats  upon  the 
surface  of  the  liquid.  Most  of  this  may  be  strained  out,  if  the 
temperature  is  below  70^  F.,  but  a  portion,  together  with  some 
resin,  remains  intimately  combined  in  the  clear  liquid,  and  it  is 
this  which  is  not  removed  previously  to  adding  the  ammonia,  in 
the  process  of  Headland.  Farther,  aconitic  acid  is  soluble  in 
ether,  and  aconitate  of  ammonia  may  be  slightly  so,  in  which 
case  it  also  would  tend  to  contaminate  the  aconitia  in  that 
process. 
Take  of  Aconite  root,  in  fine  powder,  five  pounds. 
Alcohol,  -835. 
Ether, 
Stronger  solution  of  Ammonia,  each  a  sufficient  quantity. 
Moisten  the  aconite  root  with  two  pints  of  alcohol,  and  let  it 
stand  twenty-four  hours  in  a  covered  vessel,  then,  having  packed 
it  closely  in  a  cylindrical  percolator,  pour  on  alcohol  until  three 
