AVarUT,i8nRM'}         Jerviain  Veratrum  Viride.  101 
drained,  dried,  boiled  with  strong  alcohol  until  nothing  more  is  taken 
up,  the  alcoholic  solution  evaporated  to  dryness  and  digested  in  very 
dilute  sulphuric  acid. 
The  granular  powder  which  deposits  on  cooling  is  sulphate  of  jervia. 
This  is  separated,  well  washed  and  drained,  and  then  boiled  for  some 
time  with  a  strong  solution  of  carbonate  of  sodium.  By  this  treat- 
ment the  sulphate  of  jervia  at  first  formed  is  decomposed,  the  jervia 
separating  as  a  granular  powder,  which  is  washed  until  free  from  al- 
kali, dissolved  in  acetic  acid,  precipitated  with  ammonia,  well  washed 
and  dried. 
Jervia  thus  obtained  is  a  light,  white  powder,  capable  of  crystal- 
lizing from  an  alcoholic  solution,  tasteless,  inodorous  and  of  a  feebly 
alkaline  reaction.  It  is  insoluble  in  water,  but  very  soluble  in  boiling 
alcohol,  from  which  it  is  almost  entirely  deposited,  on  cooling,  in  white 
flakes.  It  is  freely  soluble  in  chloroform,  but  is  only  slightly  soluble 
in  benzin.  With  acetic  and  phosphoric  acids  it  forms  very  soluble 
salts  ;  with  sulphuric,  hydrochloric  and  nitric  acids  it  yields  salts, 
sparingly  soluble  in  alcohol  and  water,  and  precipitated  from  the  more 
soluble  acetate  and  phosphate. 
Potassa,  soda  and  ammonia  precipitate  jervia  from  its  solutions  in 
white,  rather  gelatinous  flakes,  insoluble  in  an  excess  of  the  precipitant. 
With  reagents  it  gives  the  following  reactions  :  Perchloride  of  gold, 
curdy,  yellow  precipitate  ;  sulphocyanide  of  potassium,  white  precipi- 
tate ;  bichloride  of  platinum,  granular,  yellow  precipitate  ;  iodohy- 
drargyrate  of  potassium,  curdy,  white  precipitate. 
The  most  characteristic  test  for  jervia  is  its  reaction  with  sulphuric 
acid.  When  a  minute  fragment  of  it  is  moistened  on  a  glass  slide 
with  a  drop  of  concentrated  sulphuric  acid  it  immediately  changes, 
first  to  a  straw  yellow  and  then  gradually  to  a  green  color.  This 
reaction  is  quite  delicate. 
Concentrated  nitric  and  hydrochloric  acids  dissolve  jervi  i  to  a  col- 
orless solution,  which  when  boiled  becomes  of  a  straw  color  ;  when 
heated  it  melts  to  a  clear  oil  ;  at  a  little  above  400°  Fahrenheit  turns 
brown  ;  and  when  the  temperature  is  raised  still  higher,  it  burns  with 
a  smoky  flame. 
Thinking  that  it  would  be  well  to  compare  this  alkaloid  with  the 
jervia  from  Veratrum  album,  I  subjected  some  of  the  latter,  which  I 
had  previously  prepared,  to  the  same  tests,  with  precisely  the  same 
results.    I  do  not  feel  as  yet  able  to  state  exactly  the  proportion  in 
