Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Sept ,  1880. 
Spurious  Gums, 
455 
rendered  milky  by  addition  of  water  ;  gives  a  very  copious  precipitate 
with  subacetate  of  lead,  becomes  milky  with  neutral  acetate,  and  gives 
a  slight  whitish  precipitate  with  ferric  chloride,  but  none  with  bromine 
solution. 
The  gum  insoluble  in  alcohol  forms  with  water  a  tasteless  mucilage,, 
which  gives  a  copious  precipitate  with  subacetate,  but  very  little  with 
neutral  acetate. 
On  treating  this  substance  with  about  six  parts  of  water,  the  color- 
ing matter  and  gum  precipitated  by  subacetate  of  lead  dissolve,  the 
remainder  forming  a  thkk  oily  layer  at  the  bottom  of  the  vessel ;  this 
layer  again  treated  with  three  or  four  parts  of  water  becomes  of  a  very 
light  yellow  color  and  dissolves  entirely  in  more  water,  giving  a  nearly 
colorless  solution  which  is  scarcely  precipitated  by  subacetate  of  lead, 
and  possesses  in  a  marked  degree  the  characteristic  bitterness  and 
acridity  of  the  original  substance.  Distilled  with  water  a  very  small 
quantity  of  oil  came  over  slowly,  floating  on  the  distillate,  which  pos- 
sessed the  odor  but  not  the  taste  of  the  gum. 
Composition  of  bitter  acrid  gum  : 
Soluble  in  alcohol  (by  difFerence),  .  -  .  63*0 
Gum  insoluble  in  alcohol,  .  .  .  30*4 
Moistuie,  .  .  .  .  .6-6 
lOO'O 
The  alcoholic  solution  appears  to  contain  the  bitter  acrid  principle, 
essential  oil  and  a  substance  precipitated  Dy  Subacetate  of  lead,  for  the 
oily  layer  separating  from  the  aqueous  solution  washed  and  dissolved 
in  water  gives  scarcely  any  precipitate  with  subacetate,  and  the  sub- 
sequent addition  of  alcohol  causes  no  separation. 
Bissa  bol  was  almost  entirely  absent  from  the  bales  of  myrrh 
examined;  so. also  was  Indian  bdellium,  unless  the  yellow  tasteless 
gum-resin  be  that  substance  ;  it  differs,  however,  materially  from  the 
specimen  of  Indian  bdellium  in  the  Society's  museum. 
A  considerable  quantity  of  transparent  gum  was  found  which  appears 
to  resemble  inferior  acacia  gum  ;  also  several  tears  resembling  extern- 
ally the  yellow  tasteless  gum-resin,  some  having  an  oily  interior  and 
an  aromatic  terebinthinate  odor,  while  one  tear,  when  broken,  possessed 
an  odor  strongly  resembling  jargonelle  pear. — Pharm.  and  Trans. ^  July 
17,  1880. 
