Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Aug.,  18S6. 
Abstracts  from  Italian  Journals. 
379 
extractive.  This  extract,  after  treatment  with  a  mixture  of  alcohol 
and  ether,  left  as  a  remainder  a  brown  pulverulent  residue  of  70 
grains  in  weight.  The  insoluble  residue  so  obtained  was  agitated 
with  a  solution  of  caustic  potash  (1-100),  and  from  the  filtered  liquid, 
on  the  addition  of  acetic  acid,  gave  a  voluminous  precipitate  of  filicic 
acid  (filicin  of  TrommsdorfF).  The  portion  that  was  not  dissolved 
by  the  potassa,  and  that  remained  upon  the  filter,  was  then  exhausted 
with  boiling  alcohol,  which  deposited,  on  cooling,  a  white,  flocculent 
material,  wax-like  in  appearance,  that  after  repeated  crystallizations 
from  alcohol,  was  used  for  the  ultimate  analysis. 
The  figures  he  obtained  for  his  analyses  led  to  the  formula 
(C13H260)x,  and  were  as  follows: 
C.  per  100  
H.  "   
O.  (by  difference) 
I.  II. 
..78-99  .  78-80 
..12-98  13*28 
..  8  03  7-92 
100-00  100-00 
This  substance  is  insoluble  in  water,  very  little  soluble  in  ether 
or  in  cold  alcohol.  It  is  not  saponified  on  prolonged  ebullition  with 
caustic  potassa  in  concentrated  alcoholic  solution.  The  residue, 
left  on  the  filter,  after  the  boiling  alcohol  treatment,  was  merely  ex- 
tractive. 
The  more  soluble  portion  of  the  ethereal  extract,  that  is,  that  dis- 
solved in  the  mixture  of  alcohol  and  ether,  was,  after  reduction  to 
extractive  consistency,  exhausted  first  with  cold  water.  This  aqueous 
solution,  treated  with  acetate  of  lead  to  precipitate  the  tannin  (filitan- 
nic  acid?),  washed  and  subjected  to  a  current  of  hydrogen  sulphide  to 
remove  excess  of  lead,  left  a  saccharine  residue. 
The  residue  from  the  aqueous  exhaustion  was  then  treated  with 
alcohol  at  85°  C,  which,  evaporated,  left,  as  residue,  a  large  quantity 
of  a  black  extractive,  soluble  in  caustic  potash.  The  small  residue 
left  consisted  of  a  wax-like  fatty  material  soluble  in  alcohol,  especially 
in  the  cold.  From  the  alcoholic  treatment,  there  did  not  remain  as 
residue  more  than  a  small  quantity  of  green  fixed  oil. 
Mr.  Daccomo  is  continuing  his  studies,  toward  the  general  nature 
of  the  volatile  principles  of  male-fern,  the  results  of  which  he  will 
make  the  subject  of  another  paper. 
