188 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
PHARMACEUTICAL USES. 
Hitherto no preparations of the Jlsarum canadense have 
been made officinal; it yields its properties to water and alco- 
hol, the latter, however, for obvious reasons, being the best 
vehicle; it is sometimes used in substance. If water be em- 
ployed to extract the virtues, the precautions with regard to 
the degree and mode of applying heat ought to be attended to, 
as in the case of substances containing volatile matter. A 
decoction or an extract would seem to be precluded. The 
suggestion of the United States' Dispensatory appears 
worthy of attention, " that it would form an elegant adjuvant 
to tonic infusions and decoctions." In the latter instance, of 
course, it could not properly be added until the heat had been 
diminished. 
ART. XXX. — OBSERVATIONS ON AMYGDALINE, DEMON- 
STRATIVE OF ITS EXISTENCE IN SEVERAL SPECIES 
OF THE NATURAL DIVISION OF PLANTS AMYGDALEiE. 
By William Procter, Jr. 
Few facts in organic chemistry are more calculated to elicit 
our admiration than the existence of a powerful proximate 
principle in an extensive range of plants, many of which 
differ exceedingly in external characters, although they be- 
long to the same genus. Such an instance is Amygdaline, 
a substance discovered in the bitter almond by Robiquet and 
Boutron Charlard,* and which has since been ascertained 
by Liebig and Wohler to be the principle that gives rise 
to the oil of bitter almonds, (hyduret of benzule,) and 
hydrocyanic acid, obtained by the distillation of these 
almonds with water. 
* Annal, de Chimie et de Phys., tome xliv. 
