ON  ACONITE. 
515 
milk  of  lime  was  added  to  the  contents  of  the  still.  The  distil- 
late then  assumed  a  different  character,  being  decidedly  alkaline, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  green  parts  of  the  plant,  but  the  yield  of 
ammonia  was  much  greater. 
Some  experiments  were  made  with  the  view  of  ascertaining  if 
the  ammonia  could  possibly  have  been  derived  from  the  decompo- 
sition of  aconitine  by  lime.  I  found,  however,  that  lime-water 
gave  a  distillate  decidedly  alkaline  to  test-paper,  and  that  the 
introduction  into  the  retort  of  a  little  aconitine  made  no  appre- 
ciable difference.  It  is,  moreover,  to  be  remembered  that  the 
roots  distilled  without  lime  gave  an  ammoniacal,  though  neutral, 
distillate,  and  that  the  quantity  of  ammonia  obtainable  by  the  use 
of  lime,  though  small,  is  far  greater  than  could  possibly  be  ac- 
counted for  on  the  above  supposition.  The  only  principle  other 
than  aconitine  that  I  am  able  to  suggest  as  capable  of  account- 
ing for  the  difference  observed  between  the  physiological  action 
of  aconitine  and  that  of  the  dried  root,  is  the  acrid  resin  with 
which  the  roots  may  be  said  to  abound.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
body  does  exert  an  important  action  when  applied  topically.  The 
loss  of  strength  observed  in  drying  aconite  plants  is  doubtless 
due  (as  I  have  before  said)  to  the  very  ready  destructibility  of 
the  alkaloid  aconitine. 
My  conclusion,  "  that  Aconitum  Napellus  does  not  contain  a 
volatile  acrid  body  to  which  may  be  attributed  a  part  of  the  poison- 
ous effects  of  the  plant,"  is  one  that  I  had  anticipated,  for  the 
analogy  of  the  other  Ranunculacece  seemed,  in  my  opinion,  to 
point  that  way.  It  is  true,  as  some  writers  have  insisted,  that 
Anemone  and  Ranunculus  furnish  acrid  volatile  principles ;  it  is 
no  less  true  that  they  furnish  nothing  else  of  much  activity. 
Aconite,  on  the  other  hand,  has  been  long  known  to  furnish  the 
alkaloid  aconitine — a  body  sufficiently  acrid  and  energetic  to  ac- 
count for  the  poisonous  character  of  the  plant  ;  and  it  seems  to 
me  but  probable  that  in  Aconite  it  occupies  the  place  which  in 
Ranunculus  and  Anemone  is  filled  by  the  volatile  acrid  bodies  to 
which  I  have  referred. 
Aconitine. 
Since  the  discovery  of  this  alkaloid  by  Geiger  and  Wesse,  in 
1833,  it  has,  from  its  extreme  activity  as  a  poison,  and  the  great 
