ON  OINTMENT  AND  EXTRACT  OF  STRAMONIUM. 
391 
Ten  other  resinoids  I  have  examined,  and  with  the  same  com- 
parative results,  the  only  difference  being  a  slight  variation  in 
the  amount  of  carb.  magnesia  found.  I  have  examined  in  all 
eighteen  specimens  of  the  products  of  the  American  Chemical 
Institute,  called  resinoids  and  alkaloids,  and  have  found  but  four 
specimens  to  be  as  represented,  namely,  jalapin,  which  is  the 
true  resin  of  jalap,  powdered ;  podophyllin,  the  resin  of  the 
Podophyllum  peltatum  ;  sanguinarin,  from  the  Sanguinaria  Cana- 
densis ;  and  hydrastine,  a  crystallizable  principle  obtained  from 
the  Hydrastis  Canadensis.  As  they  prepare  it,  it  is  of  a  dark 
yellow  color,  and  in  the  form  of  a  powder.  I  found  it  to  be 
perfectly  soluble  in  hot  alcohol,  from  which  it  crystallized  in 
stellated  groups  upon  cooling.  This  substance  they  claim  to  be  an 
alkaloid,  but  it  is  really  an  indifferent  body,  without  either  alka- 
line or  acid  properties,  in  that  respect  similar  to  piperin  and 
salicin. 
The  result  of  my  analysis  of  their  preparations  is  so  much  at 
variance  with  the  high  tone  which  this  Association  assume,  and 
their  boast  of  superior  chemical  and  pharmaceutical  lore,  that  I 
deemed  it,  in  justice  to  them,  to  be  positive  that  the  preparations 
I  examined  were  as  represented,  true  specimens  of  their  manu- 
facture ;  and  also,  that  the  plea  of  their  not  being  genuine 
could  not  be  set  up  against  my  analysis  of  them,  or  maintained, 
if  perchance  it  should  be. 
And  it  must  be  evident,  from  my  examination  of  them, 
that  the  work  previously  mentioned  is  intended  as  an  adver- 
tisement, to  extend  the  sale  of  these  products;  and  as  it  is 
plausibly  written,  and  assumes  an  air  of  great  sincerity,  it  is  very 
apt  to  blind  with  many  the  true  object  in  view.  It  is  written 
also  with  another  object ;  to  lull  suspicion,  and  prevent,  if  pos- 
sible, an  investigation  of  the  true  nature  and  composition  of  the 
remedies  they  manufacture. 
Cincinnati,  June  8,  1855. 
ON  OINTMENT  AND  EXTRACT  OF  STRAMONIUM. 
By  A.  P.  Sharp,  Baltimore. 
In  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  for  1850,  the  formula  for  the 
preparation  of  stramonium  ointment  was  changed  from  the 
