14 
ESSAY ON SCAMMONY. 
latter boiled with alcohol, yields a solution which become^ 
greenish blue on the addition of nitric acid, showing the 
presence of guaiacum," The specimens I have met with 
are in half cakes. 
' Montpelier Scammony. 
This article is common in this market. It is well de- 
scribed at page 645 of the U. S. Dispensatory, ed. 1846. 
Upon reviewing our investigations, it will be found that 
the same range of varieties has been exhibited as that 
presented by Christison, but there is a marked inferiority 
even with the best of them, as compared with his speci- 
mens. The kind chiefly composed of gum, is new so far as 
I have met with any account of it, and as it is plentiful, 
indeed the most common in our market, druggists should be 
on the alert to reject it. 
There are certain properties which have been depended 
on in judging of the quality of scammony, these are the 
odour and taste, and the kind of solution which is produced 
by wetting and rubbing it. The odour is as decidedly 
cheesy and disagreeable in the worst specimens as the best, 
if not more so, and the taste is mucilaginous and nauseous, 
so much so, as to induce the belief that they are produced 
artificially ; and with respect to the milky solution, it must 
be apparent, that a mixture containing gummy compounds 
will undergo the same change by the operation usually 
practised. In fact there is no mode of determining the value 
of the adulterated article, except by the examination of its 
constituents. 
In concluding the subject it may be remarked, that un- 
less some decided stand is taken by the consumers of this 
drug, it would be as well to abandon it. The article is 
worthless as it exists in the market, serving to contaminate 
the preparations into which it enters, rather than afford to 
