Am.  Joto.  Pharm.  \ 
Sep.  1, 1874.  J 
Identity  of  Scammonin. 
421 
in  generosity,  he  ran  to  his  hut  and  brought  me  three  other  pods  of 
vanilla." 
The  Chica  vanilla  of  Panama  is  yielded  by  another  Orchid,  a  species 
of  Sobralia.  The  expressed  juice  of  V.  claviculata,  a  native  of  moun- 
tainous woods  in  the  West  Indies,  is  applied  to  recent  wounds,  and  is 
hence  called  by  the  French  in  San  Domingo  Lian  a  Measures.  There 
is  a  species  known  as  zizpic  in  Yucatan,  which  is  a  great  ornament  of 
the  cenotes,  or  subterranean  water  caverns  of  the  country.  These 
singular  caverns  are  sometimes  entirely  subterranean,  and  are  then,  of 
course  without  vegetation  ;  frequently,  however,  they  are  more  or  less 
open  at  the  top,  when  they  are  often  of  surpassing  beauty  on  account 
of  the  luxuriant  development  of  vegetable  life  which  they  contain. 
To  these  cenotes  the  few  ferns  of  Yucatan  are  almost  confined,  and  it 
is  here  that  this  vanilla  attains  perfection.  The  pods  are  occasionally 
taken  to  market  at  Valladolid,  where  they  may  be  bought  at  an  almost 
nominal  price. — Pharm.  Journ.  and  Trans.,  July  11,  1874. 
INDBNTITY  OF  SCAMMONIN  PREPARED  FROM  THE  ROOT  OF 
CONVOLVULUS  SCAMMONIA,  WITH  THAT  OBTAINED 
FROM  ALEPPO  SCAMMONY* 
By  Professor  H.  Spirgati.s. 
Some  time  sincef  the  author  published  an  account  of  an  investiga- 
tion of  the  chemical  constitution  of  scammonin,  the  resin  of  Convolvu- 
lus Scammonia,  Linn.  The  scammonin  used  by  him  on  that  occasion 
was  obtained  from  so-called  Aleppo  scammony, — i.  e.,  the  milky  juice 
of  the  above-named  plant  hardened  in  the  air, — the  latter  substance 
being  at  that  time  the  only  material  containing  scammonin  that  could 
be  supplied.  But  as  at  the  present  time  the  root  itself  of  0.  Scam- 
monia comes  into  commerce  from  Asia  Minor,  and  as  the  German 
Pharmacopoeia  requires  that  the  officinal  Resina  Scammonige  should 
be  prepared  from  it,  the  author  considered  it  desirable  also  to  prepare 
scammonin  direct  from  the  root,  and  to  compare  it  with  that  formerly 
prepared  by  him  from  scammony.  This  inquiry  seemed  to  him  to  be 
the  more  desirable  since  it  has  been  affirmed  that  the  two  bodies  are 
not  identical. 
The  scammonin  was  prepared  from  the  roots  in  the  ordinary  way, 
by  exhausting  them  with  water,  removing  the  resin  with  spirit,  de- 
*  News  Repertoriumfiir  Pharmacie,  xxiii.,  260. 
t  Annalen  der  Chem.  und  Pharm.,  cxvi.,  289. 
