466  Taraxacum  Root  and  Taraxacin.     { As™ptJe0mb«hia89™' 
this  body  be  separated  from  the  above-mentioned  amorphous  sub- 
stance or  substances  ?  For  help  in  the  work  I  am  indebted  to  Mr. 
A.  B.  Clarke,  a  student  in  the  School  of  Pharmacy  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Kansas. 
A  record  of  the  work  will  show,  probably,  that  a  separation  of 
the  bitter  principle  has  been  accomplished,  and  in  the  present  paper 
an  attempt  will  be  made,  not  only  to  show  this,  but  to  make  clear 
the  various  steps  in  the  process,  so  that  others  may  be  able  to  take 
up  the  subject,  or  follow  the  ground  gone  over,  and  thus  be  able  to 
verify  or  disprove  the  statements  made  herewith.  At  the  same 
time,  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  offer  a  process  for  the  separation 
of  the  acrid  principle  which  exists  in  the  root. 
In  the  work  during  the  year,  the  various  preparations  of  the 
drug  were  used  as  starting-points,  viz.:  the  chloroformic  extract,  the 
extract  and  the  fluid  extract.  It  is  unnecessary  to  take  up  each 
one  of  these  divisions  in  detail  and  refer  to  the  many  failures  and 
the  causes  of  them.  Reference  will  be  made  to  such  parts  of  the 
work  as  yielded  results  which  I  desire  to  record  for  the  benefit  of 
those  who  will,  at  a  future  time,  wish  to  verify  it. 
Coloring  Matter. — A  point  worthy  of  note  has  been  hinted  at  in 
a  former  paper,  namely,  that  the  root,  at  a  certain  time  in  the  late 
fall,  seems  charged  with  a  coloring  matter  almost  entirely  absent  at 
other  seasons.  On  going  over  this  part  of  the  work  again  this 
year,  I  found  that  the  October  root  was  of  a  much  higher  color, 
and  contained  this  peculiar  coloring  principle,  which  was  entirely 
absent  in  the  root  collected  in  September.  This  coloring  principle 
was  obtained  nearly  pure  by  dissolving  it  from  the  chloroformic 
extract  with  alkaline  water,  and  precipitating  it  from  the  alkaline 
solution  with  an  acid.  It  is  very  sensitive  to  acids  and  alkalies  ; 
with  the  former  yellow,  and  with  the  latter  a  deep  red  color  is  pro- 
duced. 
Acrid  Principle. — One  ounce  of  the  extract  was  mixed  with  clean 
white  sand,  and  dried  in  an  oven  at  a  temperature  of  65 °  C,  and 
powdered.  This  powdered  extract  was  very  hygroscopic,  taking 
up  water  and  becoming  caked  together  when  allowed  to  stand  in 
the  air  but  a  short  time.  The  powdered  extract  was  placed  in  a 
continuous  extracting  apparatus  and  treated  with  chloroform  for 
ten  hours.  The  chloroformic  extract  was  nearly  colorless.  The 
heat  used  in  the  manufacture  of  the  extract  seemed  to  have  ren- 
