THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
JANUARY,  1870. 
A  CONTRIBUTION  TO  OUR  KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  CHEMI- 
CAL COMPOSITION  OF  GBLSEMIUM  SEMPERYIRBNS. 
Case  of  fatal  poisoning  hy  three  drachms  of  the  fluid  extract,  and  recovery 
of  the  poison  some  months  after  death. 
By  Theo.  G.  Wormley,  M.D., 
Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Toxicology  in  Starling  Medical  College. 
Having  recently  been  solicited  to  make  a  chemical  examina- 
tion of  the  contents  of  the  stomach  of  a  woman  who,  it  was 
claimed,  had  administered  to  her,  through  the  mistake  of  a  drug- 
gist, a  quantity  of  the  fluid  extract  of  gelsemium*  and  died  from, 
its  effects,  we  found  it  necessary,  before  undertaking  the  ex- 
amination, to  ascertain  whether  this  substance  really  contained 
any  principle  or  principles  by  which  its  presence  could  be  cer- 
tainly determined.  For  this  purpose,  we  made  a  series  of  ex- 
periments upon  the  fluid  extract  of  gelsemium,  prepared  by  Til- 
den  &  Co.,  and  found  it  to  contain  a  new  organic  acid,  which 
maybe  denominated  geUeminic  acid^  and  a  strongly  basic  or 
EXPLANATIONS  OF  THE  PLATE 
Illustrating  Dr.  Wormley' s  paper  on  Gelsemium  sempervirens^ 
Fio.  1.  Gelsemiaic  acid  from  ethereal  solution,  X  20  dianie-ters. 
"    2.  "  "     hot  supersaturated  aqjieous  solutioD,  x 
75  diameters. 
*'    3,  4,  5.  Gelseminic  acid,  sublimed,  x  75  diameters. 
"    6.  Gelseminic  acid,  precipitated  by  corrosive  sublimate^  X'  75 
diameters. 
*  A  concentrated  tincture  of  the  root  of  Gelsemium  of  the  atrength  of  480 
grains  to  each  fluidounce. — Editor. 
