92 
PROXIMATE PRINCIPLES OF VEGETABLES. 
tion filtered through washed animal charcoal. The liquid 
after having traversed the layer of animal charcoal, was in- 
sipid and colourless. The charcoal was washed and dried, 
and treated with alcohol of 84S spec. grav. ; the alcoholic 
solution furnished, on evaporation in the water-bath, a milky 
Mquid, and the sides of the vessel were covered with crys- 
tals of quinine. The milky liquid turned red litmus-paper 
blue, and on treatment with sulphuric acid furnished sul- 
phate of quinine. 
To avoid the objection that might be made with regard to 
the action of the sulphuric acid on the lime-salts contained 
in the animal charcoal, I proceeded as follows: — 500grms. 
of the same bark were deprived of their soluble principles 
by repeated macerations in alcohol of 0.923, the resulting 
liquids filtered, the alcohol removed by distillation, the li- 
quid residue mixed with two decoctions of the same bark in 
distilled water, the mixture filtered through paper, and then 
through animal charcoal which had been previously deprived 
of the salts of lime, &c, by hydrochloric acid, and well 
washed. The liquid passed slowly through the charcoal, 
and was deprived of its bitter taste and colour. This char- 
coal was now washed, dried, and treated with alcohol of 
0.S48. The alcoholic solution left on distillation a mixture 
of quinine and resinous substance. To obviate this incon- 
venience, I repeated the preceding operation, adding to the 
mixture of the alcoholic macerations and aqueous decoc- 
tions a certain amount of acetate of lead, which precipitated 
the resinous substance. The liquid, filtered from this precipi- 
tate and treated as above, furnished the quinine in a state of 
perfect purity. 
These experiments, besides proving the pre-existence of 
certain alkaloids in plants, open a new path of organic 
analysis, and complete in some measure the study of the 
principal properties of animal charcoal. — Ibid, from Ann. de 
Chim. et de Phys., 
