260 
ON KALMIA LATIFOLIA. 
and refers to Murray's Apparatus Medicaminurn for an 
account of the drug. 
The wood, in fact all parts of the tree, are possessed of 
intense bitterness, this is owing to the principle Quassin. 
Although this plant does not afford the article now used, a 
more fruitful source having been discovered in the Jamaica 
tree, it is of high interest as having produced the originally 
introduced article. 
ART. LV.— ON KALMIA LATIFOLIA. 
By Charles Bullock. 
(^Extracted from an Inaugural Thesis.*) 
With a view of ascertaining the proximate chemical 
constituents of the Kalmia, and more especially that to 
which its action on the animal economy is due, the leaves 
were subjected to the following experiments : 
Dr. Stabler, of Alexandria, was of opinion that the activity 
of the plant is due to a volatile oil ; an opinion not alto- 
gether reconcilable with the fact that he found the decoction 
more active than the substance, when taken into the 
stomach. 
1st. Both the infusion and decoction gave copious pre- 
cipitates with sub-acetate of lead, lime water, and proto- 
nitrate of mercury ; the latter, after the solution had been 
deprived of its tannin by means of gelatin. 
2d. The addition of per-chloride of iron to the decoction, 
* For the Botanical and Medical history of this plant; the reader is 
referred to an article by Dr. Stabler, in the 16th vol. page 241, of 
this Journal, on which account we have omitted the first portion of 
this thesis. — Eds. 
