336 ON A SUBSTANCE RESEMBLING MYRRH. 
The resinous matter B, as we have separated it mechanic- 
ally, is united with a certain quantity of water, which causes 
it to be in the state of a hydrate. In this state, it is insoluble 
in a new quantity of cold or boiling water; it obstinately pre- 
serves, in spite of repeated washings, the acrid and bitter taste 
of the substance when entire; it is soluble in five times its 
weight of absolute alcohol. 
This matter B, insoluble in cold water, was dissolved in 
alcohol. This solution, much diluted with water, was not 
rendered cloudy; allowed to evaporate, it remained transpa- 
rent; then, in proportion as the evaporation advanced, the ole- 
aginous drops were perceived floating upon the liquid, and as- 
suming a consistence in appearance resinous, when they were 
attached to the dry sides of the capsule. 
Dissolved in five parts of absolute alcohol, this matter re- 
sumed, when water was added to the solution, the form of 
transparent drops, the mixture not appearing clouded, but ra- 
ther presenting the appearance of water, in which had been 
agitated a few drops of fixed oil with a tube. The resin of the 
myrrhoid is not soluble in ether. 
Direct treatment of the Myrrhoid by Ether. 
The myrrhoid was exhausted by three successive decoc- 
tions in alcohol, previously reduced to fine powder. The hot 
solutions, filtered and placed in a flask, allowed nothing to 
deposit by cooling; united and evaporated by a moderate heat, 
they left, as a residuum, a yellow substance of the consistence 
of turpentine, transparent, extremely acrid and bitter; when 
hot, it was so ductile that, if -a rod was just placed in it, it 
could be drawn out like melted glass. A small mass of six 
centigrammes could thus afford a thread more than two me- 
tres in length. Brought in contact with the flame of a candle, 
it melted without taking fire — without smoking like the resins, 
and finished by becoming black. 
This substance, obtained by alcohol, is very bitter, but this 
bitterness is essentially different from that of myrrh; to it 
succeeds an acrid taste, which for a long time remains in the 
