512 
REPORT  ON  SPIGELIAo 
ated  over  a  steam  bath  and  treated  with  ether,  which  did  not 
dissolve  any  portion  of  it.  This  substance  has  a  reddish  brown 
color,  is  uncrystallizable,  neutral  to  test  papers,  deliquescent, 
and  hence  difficult  to  retain  in  the  solid  form,  soluble  in  water 
and  alcohol,  insoluble  in  ether,  and  like  the  products  of  other 
members  of  the  order  Loganiacese,  has  an  intensely  bitter  taste. 
Carbonate  of  potassa  or  soda  do  not  affect  its  sensible  pro- 
perties ;  solution  of  per-chloride  of  iron  or  sub-acetate  of  lead 
do  not  precipitate  it  from  solution  ;  infusion  of  galls  appears 
to  be  incompatible  with  it,  causing  a  precipitate  when  added. 
When  heated  with  liquor  potassa  and  tested  by  muriatic  acid, 
vapor  evidence  of  the  presence  of  nitrogen  was  afforded.  It 
froths  with  water  when  shaken  with  it,  and  when  taken  internally 
causes  vertigo  and  headache.  Whether  the  vermifuge  properties 
of  the  root  reside  exclusively  in  this  principle,  experiment  only 
can  determine,  which  has  not  yet  been  done  for  want  of  oppor- 
tunity ;  that  it  has  the  active  principle  of  the  root  in  an  eminent 
degree  I  am  convinced  by  the  experiments  on  my  own  person, 
producing  the  narcotic  effects  attributed  to  the  plant. 
Another  portion  of  root  in  coarse  powder  was  exhausted  with 
hot  water,  the  infusion  expressed  from  the  marc,  the  latter  then 
treated  by  maceration  in  eighty  per  cent,  alcohol  and  displaced 
with  more  of  the  same  menstruum,  until  it  passed  without  color ; 
the  alcohol  was  evaporated  by  a  gentle  heat,  when  a  brown  resin 
separated  having  neither  taste  or  smell  if  purified  from  the 
bitter  principle  above  mentioned,  and  is,  I  believe,  inert. 
A  third  portion  of  root,  in  coarse  powder,  was  treated  with 
ether  by  displacement  until  it  ceased  to  extract  color  from  it ; 
this  was  exposed  in  a  shallow  dish  and  allowed  to  evaporate 
spontaneously;  the  extract  left  was  exhausted  with  boiling  water, 
filtered,  and  solution  of  per-chloride  of  iron  added,  which  gave  a 
bluish  black  precipitate.  The  portion  not  soluble  in  hot  water 
was  a  soft  wax  which  gave  out  a  pungent  odor  when  heated, 
owing  to  its  being  impregnated  with  the  volatile  oil  of  the  root. 
The  constituents  of  the  root  according  to  this  analysis  are 
1.  A  bitter,  uncrystallizable,  proximate  principle. 
2.  A  volatile  oil. 
3.  Tannin. 
4.  Inert  extractive. 
