ON DIGITALIS PURPUREA. 
207 
Leroyer is composed of chlorophylle, resin, a fatty matter, 
and some salt of lime, and potash; and that the process of M. 
Pauguy furnishes, absolutely, no substance at all. 
We may be permitted to believe that digitalis leaves are 
composed of chlorophylle, resin, fatty matter, amidon, vege- 
table fibre, gum, tannin, salts of lime, and potash, volatile oil, 
and oxalate of potash. 
We believe, they continue, that the purgative and diuretic 
effects of foxglove are attributable, not to a peculiar principle, 
but to the union of all the substances which compose it, and 
especially to the resin. This resin has a bitter taste, is acrid,, 
and almost corrosive. If one places on his tongue a very 
small portion of it, he experiences a very painful sensation of 
heat and constriction in the throat. Two grains of this resin 
swallowed, irritate the stomach. It is very soluble in warm 
alcohol; it is soluble in ether and volatile oils; insoluble in 
water, but soluble in water sharpened with an acid. 
In conclusion, MM. Brault and Poggiole observe, that the 
fecula deposited by foxglove juice, has been very much em- 
ployed in medicine, because the resin it contains communi- 
cates to it the properties of digitalis.* 
At a meeting of the Society of Pharmacy, February, 1835, 
M. Pelletier stated that he had observed and confirmed the 
most important facts in the foregoing memoir. 
From all these investigations, it is plain that in digitalis a 
principle or combination of principles exists, which in minute 
quantity, is capable of producing the deadly effects of this 
medicine. Leroyer says it is an alkaline; Dulong says that it 
is a bitter principle of a reddish-yellow color, and of an exces- 
sively bitter taste; that it softens by heat, and draws into 
threads like resin, becoming dry and brittle when cold; that it 
slightly deliquesces in the air, and that it is soluble in water 
and alcohol, although insoluble in sulphuric either. Brault 
and Poggiole conceive that the purgative and diuretic effects 
depend chiefly upon a resin, but also on the united agency of 
* Journal de Pharmacie, xxi. p. 130. 
