236  Volatile  Oil  of  Cicuta  Metadata.      { Am]£Sf  J£?rm" 
THE  VOLATILE  OIL  OF  CICUTA  MACULATA.1 
By  Frkeman  P.  Stroup,  Ph.G. 
Contribution  from  the  Chemical  Laboratory  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy,  No.  153. 
The  boiling  points  of  the  several  fractions  of  the  oil  were  taken 
in  a  thin  test  tube  placed  in  a  sand  bath,  and  containing  just  enough 
of  the  oil  to  immerse  the  bulb  of  the  thermometer,  the  temperature 
being  noted  when  the  oil  was  in  active  ebullition.  The  specific 
gravity  of  the  original  oil  was  taken  by  means  of  a  pyknometer, 
with  the  oil  at  a  uniform  temperature  of  150  C.  The  specific  gravi- 
ties of  the  several  fractions,  owing  to  the  small  quantity  of  each 
that  was  obtained,  were  taken  at  150  C,  by  means  of  an  impro- 
vised bottle,  and  are,  necessarily,  only  approximately  correct.  The 
various  distillations  and  rectifications  were  conducted  under  the 
ordinary  atmospheric  pressure.  The  distillations  necessary  for  frac- 
tioning  the  oil  were  conducted  from  an  ordinary  fractioning  bulb 
over  a  sand  bath,  with  a  thermometer  inserted  in  the  well-fitting 
cork  in  such  a  manner  that  its  bulb  was  on  a  level  with  the  junction 
of  the  neck  of  the  flask  with  the  body. 
At  first  a  condenser  was  employed,  but  it  was  afterwards  found 
that  the  fractions  could  be  distilled  from  one  bulb  into  another 
without  its  use.  With  the  condenser  it  seemed  impossible  to 
get  rid  of  all  traces  of  water,  even  by  repeated  agitation  of  the  oil 
with  anhydrous  calcium  chloride  and  subsequent  re-distillation. 
This  trouble  was  not  experienced  after  the  condenser  was  dis- 
carded. 
The  combustions  were  conducted  in  an  open  tube  with  cupric 
oxide  and  a  stream  of  oxygen.  The  vapor  densities  were  taken  by 
means  of  the  Victor  Meyer  apparatus,  and  all  necessary  corrections 
for  variation  in  temperature  and  barometric  pressure  were  made  in 
the  usual  way. 
The  quantity  of  oil  obtained  from  the  amount  of  drug  obtainable 
was  so  small  that  it  was  deemed  advisable  not  to  test  it  as  a  whole, 
but  rather  to  split  it  into  its  component  parts,  and,  if  possible,  ascer- 
tain its  chemical  composition,  especially  as  the  oil  had  been  pretty 
thoroughly  described  as  a  whole  by  Jos.  E.  Young,  in  this  journal, 
1  Literature.— Jos.  B.  Young,  Am.  Jour.  Pharm.,  July,  1855;  and  Robert 
Glenk,  Am.  Jour.  Pharm.,  July,  1891. 
