350 
ON  WRIGHTINE. 
nient  of  hemorrhoids  they  are  given  in  the  form  of  decoction 
made  with  milk,  and  regarded  as  most  efficacious. 
I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Daniel  Hanbury  for  the  above  descrip 
tion,  and  also  for  a  quantity  of  the  seeds. 
The  seeds,  which  contain  a  large  quantity  of  a  fixed  oil,  were 
reduced  to  a  coarse  powder  by  pounding, — an  operation  which 
is  accomplished  with  some  difficulty,  owing  to  their  greasy 
nature.  The  pounded  seeds  were  then  placed  in  a  displacement 
apparatus  and  treated  with  a  considerable  quantity  of  cold  bi- 
sulphide of  carbon,  in  order  to  remove  the  fatty  matter.  The 
seeds  were  then  heated  in  an  open  vessel  until  the  mechanically- 
contained  bisulphide  of  carbon  was  driven  off,  and  they  were 
afterwards  extracted  with  boiling  spirit  of  wine.  The  fatty 
matter  which  is  extracted  by  sulphide  of  carbon  from  Wrightia 
seeds,  and  which  is  present  in  large  quantity,  is  a  fixed  oil, 
which  does  not  solidify  at  a  temperature  considerably  below 
32°  F.  When  digested  with  caustic  alkalies  it  is  slowly  decom- 
posed, giving  a  solution  of  soap,  from  which  acids  precipitate  a 
fat  becoming  semisolid  when  cold. 
After  the  alcohol  had  been  removed  by  distillation  from  the 
alcoholic  extract  of  the  seeds,  prepared  in  the  manner  described, 
the  residue,  which  consisted  chiefly  of  crude  wrightine,  con- 
taminated, however,  with  fatty  matters,  gum,  etc.,  was  digested 
with  a  small  quantity  of  dilute  hydrochloric  acid,  and  filtered. 
The  clear  solution,  if  tolerably  concentrated,  when  treated  with 
ammonia  or  carbonate  of  soda,  yielded  an  abundant  flocculent 
precipitate,  the  solution  at  the  same  time  becoming  of  a  deep 
green  color.  The  wrightine  was  collected  on  a  filter  and  washed 
with  cold  water.  When  ignited  with  soda-lime  it  evolves  alkaline 
vapors  and  a  basic  oil,  which  solidifies  to  a  resin  on  cooling. 
Wrightine  is  moderately  soluble  in  boiling  water  and  in  boil-* 
ing  spirit  of  wine,  and  but  slightly  so  in  ether  or  bisulphide  of 
carbon.    I  have  not  succeeded  in  obtaining  it,  or  any  of  its 
salts,  in  a  crystalline  state. 
Wrightine  readily  dissolves  in  dilute  sulphuric,  nitric,  hydro- 
chloric, oxalic,  or  acetic  acid3  ;  but  the  solutions,  however  highly 
concentrated,  only  yield  a  resinous  deposit,  without  the  slightest 
trace  of  crystallization. 
