36 SELECTED ARTICLES. 
without mixture, and others of a reddish gray, analogous in tint 
to the St. Lucia wood, [Prunus mahaleb.) I have had in 
my possession may pieces of this size, with one of which 
I had constructed, at the time, a fountain of the capacity of 
six pints, as well as other vases of different forms, for a 
Russian prince then in Paris. Upon this same quassia the 
following observations have been made, which will include, 
first, the wood and the efflorescence upon its surface; then the 
ashes, the wine, and the extract of quassia. We have thought 
that we ought to invert the chronological order in which these 
experiments have been made, which, however, is of little 
consequence in the end, so that we may not have to return to 
the wood after its preparations have been discussed. 
Crystals of Nitre collected from Quassia. The part of the 
wood on which they have been exhibited. 
At the same meeting of the Society of Pharmacy {February, 
1829) that M. Guibourt presented a stethoscope of cedar, in 
one of the cavities of which was observed a crystalline for- 
mation, attributed by our skilful associate to the condensa- 
tion of the aromatic principle of this wood, I announced 
verbally, and without any details, that I had observed crystals 
of nitrate of potassa upon cups formed of quassia wood. I 
now return to this fact, with some illustrations, which may 
throw still greater light upon the ulterior formation of this 
salt in the extract. Nitrate of potassa, so common in her- 
baceous vegetables of different families, has been observed, so 
far as my information extends, in but a single ligneous vege- 
table substance, the wood of quassia; and this has been the 
case during a period of nineteen years,* which does not 
disprove the existence of the same salt in other woods, con- 
sidering so small a number of them have been analysed. 
It may be possible, although in opposition to received ideas, 
that the nitrate of potassa, if it exist in the different woods 
serving for the fabrication of salts, may be found in part in 
* At this period dates the use of goblets of quassia wood in France, now 
almost forgotten. 
