154  As  arum  Canadense.  {AmXJPXx876.rm' 
ammonia,  precipitate  jervia  completely ; — the  precipitate  is  insoluble  in 
an  excess  of  these  precipitants.1 
ASARUM  CANADENSE  AS  AN  INDIGENOUS  AROMATIC. 
BY  ALBERT  H.   VAN   GORDER,  PH.G. 
[Extract  from  an  Inaugural  Essay.) 
This  officinal  drug,  which  has  been  placed  in  the  secondary  list  of 
our  "  Pharmacopoeia,"  is  known  under  the  popular  names  of  wild  gin- 
ger, Indian  ginger,  colt's  foot  root  and  Canada  snake  root,  and  is  used 
instead  of  ginger  by  the  country  people  in  some  parts  of  New  Eng- 
land. On  account  of  its  medicinal  properties,  it  has  been  noticed  by 
all  our  writers  on  native  medicines  ;  but  further  than  occupying  a  place 
in  our  Materia  Medica,  it  seems  to  be  very  little  used  in  regular  prac- 
tice. 
That  the  rhizome  possesses  properties  adapting  it  to  be  classed  with 
the  aromatic  stimulants,  is  shown  by  its  constituents,  as  given  by  Big- 
elow,  Rushton  and  Procter.  According  to  Rushton,  it  contains  gum, 
starch,  resin,  fatty  matter,  chlorophyl,  volatile  oil,  salts  of  lime,  potassa 
and  iron,  to  which  may  be  added  lignin.  Of  the  volatile  oil  he  says  : 
"  It  is  of  a  light  greenish-yellow  color,  having  a  warm,  slightly  bitter- 
ish aromatic  taste,  and  contains  all  the  virtues  of  the  plant." 
Wm.  Procter,  Jr.,  has  extended  our  knowledge  concerning  the 
volatile  oil,  and  medicinal  properties  of  the  root.  He  says  :  u  The 
essential  oil  seems  the  most  energetic  element ;  the  root  possessing 
neither  emetic  nor  cathartic  properties,  but  is  an  aromatic  stimulant 
with  diaphoretic  powers.  It  contains  neither  asarite  or  asarum  cam- 
phor, nor  substances  analogous  to  them."  It  is  thus  seen  to  possess 
none  of  the  emetic  or  cathartic  properties  of  its  congener,  the  Asarum 
Europaeum,  which  would  render  it  unfit  for  use  as  an  aromatic. 
It  would  seem  strange  that,  possessing,  as  this  root  does,  such  pleas- 
ant and  strongly  aromatic  properties,  its  use  should  be  so  limited. 
Doubtless,  this  neglect  is,  in  a  great  measure,  owing  to  the  want  of 
1  After  completing  these  examinations,  my  friend,  George  J.  Scattergood,  kindly 
placed  in  my  hands  his  original  notes,  with  samples  of  the  products  obtained  by 
him  from  Veratrum  viride  in  1862.  The  products  marked  "  veratria,"  I  found  to 
be  jervia  mixed  with  the  peculiar  resin  which  gives  a  mahogany  red  color  with  sul- 
phuric [acid.  They  correspond  with  the  product  called  "  veratroidia,"  an  exami- 
nation of  which  was  one  of  the  objects  of  the  present  investigation. 
