ON PHYTOLACCA DECANDRA. 
167 
colorless; this tincture was of a light-brown color, and ap- 
peared to contain allthe active properties of the root. Con- 
centrated by evaporation, a fixed oil made its appearance on 
the surface in small globules, which were removed as fast 
as formed. After the oil was separated, water was added 
to the tincture, which caused a copious curdy precipitate, 
which in a few minutes floated on the surface in the floccu- 
lent form, leaving the liquid perfectly clear. This was care- 
fully removed and evaporated to dryness in a capsule ; the 
dry mass was digested in alcohol until entirely dissolved, 
and then concentrated by evaporation. Tasted in this state 
it was slightly pungent and extremely nauseous. The odor 
somewhat resembling that of tobacco. The addition of wa- 
ter to a small portion gave it a milky appearance, and test- 
ed with absolute alcohol the same effect was produced; this 
experiment evidences properties analagous to the gum resins. 
On evaporating to drjmess, a substance of a light-brown 
color was obtained, possessing the above mentioned proper- 
ties in a concentrated degree; it weighed ten and a half 
grains. The clear liquid when concentrated by evaporation 
had a sweet and mucilaginous taste, accompanied by con- 
siderable astringency. 
A portion tested with the acetate of the protoxide of 
lead, threw down a white insoluble precipitate of gum and 
protoxide of lead. A solution of the sesquisulphate of 
iron formed a bluish black precipitate, showing the presence 
of tannin, on which the astringency of the tincture depended. 
The root thus exhausted, was insipid and inodorous. When 
dried it weighed 362 grains, showing a loss, besides the ten 
and a half grains of gum resin, of twenty-one and a half 
grains of a mixture of gum, tannin, and a small quantity of 
saccharine matter, and two grains of oil, which last was sub- 
sequently found to exist in a like amount of the root. The 
residue was now boiled in successive portions of water, so 
long as the aqueous solution of iodine indicated starch; the 
different portions were added together and concentrated by 
