37°  Hydrastis  Canadensis 
glucoside  was  left  in  a  crystalline  condition.  When  it  was  dissolved 
in  water  and  heated  with  Fehling's  solution,  the  latter  was  reduced. 
Sulphuric  acid  colored  it  reddish-brown,  nitric  acid  turned  it  yellow. 
Several  hundred  grams  of  the  bulbs  were  extracted  and  the  pro- 
portion of  the  glucoside  found  to  be  about  two-tenths  per  cent. 
The  alkaloid  was  prepared  by  using  the  acid  solution,  from  which 
the  glucoside  had  been  extracted  by  agitation  with  ether  and  chloro- 
form. This  acid  solution  was  rendered  alkaline  with  sodium  hydrate 
and  then  agitated  with  chloroform.  On  evaporation  of  the  latter^ 
the  alkaloid  was  deposited  in  colorless  acicular  crystals.  These 
crystals,  when  heated  on  a  platinum  foil,  melted  to  a  bright  red 
liquid,  and  then  completely  volatilized.  When  heated,  with  soda 
lime  the  odor  of  ammonia  was  given  off.  Concentrated  sulphuric  acid 
colored  the  crystals  dark  brown.  An  acid  solution  of  the  alkaloid 
gave  precipitates  with  most  of  the  alkaloidal  reagents. 
About  two  one-hundredths  per  cent,  of  the  alkaloid  were  found 
in  the  moist  bulbs.  The  dry  drug  yielded  proportionately  a  much 
smaller  quantity  of  the  active  principles,  no  doubt  because  of  their 
decomposition  frcm  the  heat  employed. 
These  principles  were  also  prepared  by  extracting  the  moist 
bulbs  with  acidulated  water,  and  agitating  this  liquid  with  ether  and 
chloroform  as  in  the  preceding  case,  but  the  mucilage  present  ren- 
dered the  successful  agitation  with  solvents  almost  impossible  on 
account  of  the  formation  of  an  emulsion,  which  required  a  long 
time  to  separate. 
HYDRASTIS  CANADENSIS.1 
By  F.  A.  Thompson,  Detroit,  Mich. 
Golden  Seal,  introduced  to  the  medical  profession  about  forty 
years  ago  by  the  Eclectics,  has  become  one  of  the  leading  drugs  of  the 
Materia  Medica,  and  for  a  complete  Botanical,  Medical  and  Phar- 
maceutical history,  consult  Drugs  and  Medicines  of  North  America. 
It  is  my  intention  with  this  paper  not  to  discuss  the  various  con- 
stituents of  this  drug  as  to  their  characteristic  reactions,  or  make  a 
special  study  of  them,  but  to  present  briefly  the  results  obtained  in 
assaying  the  drug,  ground  ready  for  manufacture  of  galenical  pre- 
parations, and  several  fluid  extracts  made  by  the  leading  manufac- 
turing pharmacists. 
1  Read  before  Michigan  State  Pharm.  Ass'n,  St.  Clair  Flats,  June,  1893. 
Am.  Jonr.  Pharna. 
Aug.,  1893. 
