THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
NOVEMBER,  1862. 
ON  THE  ALKALOIDS  OF  HYDEASTIS  CANADENSIS. 
By  Wm.  S.  Merrill,  A.  M, 
To  the  Editor  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy. 
I  hoped  to  be  able  to  attend  the  approaching  meeting  of  the 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  but  find  I  shall  not  be 
able  to  leave  home.  I  have  therefore  forwarded  to  you  a  small 
package  of  samples,  chiefly  products  obtained  from  the  Hydras- 
tis, and  request  you  will  present  them  to  the  Association  for 
their  examination. 
In  a  business  letter  to  Prof.  Parrish,  some  months  ago,  I 
briefly  mentioned  these.  I  was  not  publishing  an  analysis  or 
writing  an  essay,  but  briefly  stated  the  fuller  results  of  our  ex- 
periments, of  which  I  had  previously  sent  him  some  samples  ; 
and  I  expressed  a  willingness  to  have  these  statements  pub- 
lished, as  they  contained  some  facts  that  I  did  not  suppose  had 
been  previously  announced.  Under  these  circumstances,  I 
certainly  thought  some  portion  of  your  criticism  of  the  article 
quite  uncalled  for. 
Our  examination  of  the  hydrastis  was  principally  made  last 
fall,  and  I  then  knew  nothing  of  the  analysis  of  Durand,  further 
than  stated  in  U.  S.  D.,  which  concludes  by  saying,  "He  also 
discovered  a  peculiar  nitrogenous  crystallizable  substance  for 
which  he  proposes  the  provisional  name  <  Hydrastin,'  until  it 
shall  be  determined  whether  it  be,  as  he  suspects,  an  organic 
alkali."  This  is  certainly  very  indefinite,  and  does  not  even, 
make  it  certain  which  of  the  two  alkaloid  bases  it  was  which  he 
discovered. 
On  the  6th  of  Feb.  last,  when  sending  to  Prof.  Parrish  some 
samples  of  xanthoxylum  bark  and  other  articles  for  the  cabinet 
which  the  Pharmaciens  of  Philadelphia  were  getting  up  for  ex- 
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