468 
Cimicifuga  Racemosa. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Oct.,  1878. 
It  is  therefore  a  fatty  acid,  and  is  undoubtedly  the  substance  which, 
either  in  its  free  state  or  in  some  combined  form,  dissolves  in  the  con- 
centrated solutions  of  chamaelirin. 
In  addition  to  the  chamaelirin  and  the  fatty  acid  just  referred  to,  a 
free  acid,  glucose,  starch  and  tannic  acid,  giving  a  greenish  precipitate 
with  per-salts  of  iron,  have  been  incidentally  recognized  as  present  in 
the  root  of  the  Chamaelirium  luteum. 
The  physiological  experiments  that  I  have  made  with  chamaelirin 
prove  that  it  is  a  cardiac  poison,  and  that  it  produces  its  toxic  effects 
by  virtue  of  a  depressing  influence  on  the  pneumogastric  centres,  and 
likewise  by  more  or  less  completely  exhausting  or  paralyzing  the  heart 
muscle.  It  also  possesses,  in  common  with  saponin,  the  remarkable 
property  of  immediately  dissolving  the  red  corpuscles,  when  a  small 
quantity,  either  in  powder  or  aqueous  solution,  is  added  to  the  blood. 
In  November,  1876,  Prof.  Husemann  published  in  the  "  Archiv 
der  Pharmacie "  a  very  valuable  paper  on  the  "  Distribution  of  the 
Cardiac  Poisons  in  the  Vegetable  Kingdom,"  wherein  he  pointed  out 
that  the  number  of  families  of  plants  containing  well-established  prin- 
ciples affecting  the  action  of  the  heart  was  very  small,  and  that  these 
principles  had  invariably  been  proved  to  be  glucosides.  In  the  course 
of  his  communication  he  calls  attention  to  various  American  plants 
belonging  to  the  families  furnishing  cardiac  poisons,  in  which  he  thinks 
there  are  strong  grounds  for  suspecting  the  existence  of  principles  hav- 
ing a  toxic  effect  upon  the  heart.  The  discovery,  therefore,  of  a  glu- 
coside  having  the  properties  of  a  cardiac  poison  in  an  indigenous  plant 
belonging  to  one  of  these  families,  the  Liliaceae,  tends  strongly  to  con- 
firm the  opinions  expressed  by  him  on  this  subject. 
CIMICIFUGA    RACEMOSA,  Ell. 
By  Frank  H.  Trimble,  Ph.G. 
Abstract  from  an  Inaugural  Essay. 
The  concentrated  tincture  of  black  snake  root  was  precipitated  by 
water  and  the  resin  collected  and  put  aside.  The  aqueous  filtrate  was 
precipitated  by  basic  acetate  of  lead,  the  precipitate  suspended  in  alcohol, 
decomposed  by  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  and  the  alcoholic  filtrate  evapor- 
ated. The  residue  was  amorphous,  could  not  be  obtained  in  crystals, 
and  gave  with  ferric  chloride  a  dark-green  color,  similar  to  that  produced 
