190 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
cold alcohol, and the mixture filtered. The solution, by being 
heated to ebullition and again filtered, yields crystallized 
amygdaline by spontaneous evaporation. 
A saturated aqueous solution of amygdaline, made at 104° 
Fahr., deposits, by cooling, a large quantity of transparent 
crystals, which radiate, in crystallizing from a common centre, 
in voluminous groups. They are softer than sugar, become 
opaque by exposure to the atmosphere, and lose all their 
water of crystallization at an elevated temperature, in order 
to effect which it is necessary to expose them to a sustained 
heat of 24S° Fahr. 
It appears, according to Liebig and Wohler's statement, 
that one hundred parts of crystallized amygdaline is com- 
posed of — 
Amygdaline, 89.43 
Water, 10.57 
100.00. 
Composition of Amygdaline. 
Many difficulties present themselves in the analysis of 
amygdaline, particularly that of depriving it wholly of water 
of crystallization, as it absorbs rapidly from two to three and 
a half per cent, of water. All substances that contain azote 
offer great opposition to exact analysis, from the impossibility 
of depriving the apparatus of atmospheric air. The following 
table represents the results of five careful analyses by Liebig 
and Wohler, in which they have taken every possible pre- 
caution respecting the azote : 
Nitrogen, 
Carbon, 
Hydrogen, 
Oxygen, 
I. 
II; 
III. 
IV. 
V. 
3.069 
3.069 
3.069 
3.069 
3.069. 
51.874 
52.760 
52.770 
52.827 
52.810. 
6.166 
5.980 
6.036 
5.900 
5.942. 
38.891 
38.201 
37.125 
38.204 
38.179. 
