4 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
from time to time uselessly swelled the list of medicinal 
agents, the larkspur has enjoyed its short period of favor, and 
the species owes its name to the high repute in which its flowers 
were held as a vulnerary. 
Various parts of the plant have been used medicinally. 
The flowers were formerly considered diuretic, vermifuge, and 
emmenagogue, and the seeds, in large doses, are said to pro- 
duce vomiting and purging. A tincture of the seeds, pre- 
pared by macerating an ounce of them in a pint of diluted alco- 
hol, has been employed, both in this country and in England, 
in spasmodic asthma and dropsy. The dose of this tincture 
is ten drops. The root is but little, if at all used. 
CHEMICAL HISTORY. 
No chemical analysis has, as far as I am enabled to ascer- 
tain, been made of the plant under consideration, though the 
seeds of a congener (the staphisagria) have undergone inves- 
tigation, and it was from a supposition that those of the lark- 
spur partook of an analogous constitution, that the annexed 
experiments were essayed. 
Is/. — A decoction of the seeds showed a distinct acid reac- 
tion, and presented, when filtered, a yellowish-green color. 
It was of a bitter, nauseous taste, and produced, with the tinc- 
ture of muriate of iron, a black color, showing the presence of 
gallic acid. The absence of tannin was shown by their being 
no change produced by a solution of gelatin. No change in 
color was produced by tincture of iodine. With a solution of 
acetate of lead, it afforded a copious flocculent precipitate, of 
a dirty, white color, which, when collected and dried, pre- 
sented all the characters of the compound formed by the 
union of gum and oxide of lead. 
2d. — A portion of the seeds were submitted to the action 
of sulphuric ether for the space of twenty-four hours; the 
ether soon acquired a greenish color, and, on filtration and 
evaporation, yielded a fixed oil, which was limpid, of a 
greenish-yellow color, nearly insipid, and of the specific gra- 
vity .90; though, as it possessed some odor, it is but fair to 
