536 
ON  RHATANY  ROOT. 
week's  standing,  on  which  account  the  entire  liquors  were  evapo- 
rated down  to  one-sixth  and  again  allowed  to  stand  in  the  quiet ; 
at  the  end  of  a  week  very  little  had  separated.  At  this  stage  of 
the  process  Muck  lost  his  patience,  thinking  that  he  might  have 
to  wait  some  weeks  longer  for  an  increase  in  his  crystals  of  light 
brown  morphia ;  he  therefore  evaporated  to  the  consistence  of 
extract,  which  was  treated  with  acetic  acid  and  water,  and  pre- 
cipitated with  ammonia,  the  product  being  over  two  drachms  of 
nearly  pure  morphia,  which  proved  that  the  opium  used  was  of  a 
good  quality.  There  appeared  in  the  same  Journal,  1855,  No. 
6,  during  the  time  Muck  was  making  these  investigations,  an 
article  from  Plener,  who  also  speaks  of  the  uncertainty  of  this 
process  of  Ramdohr's.  He  obtained  a  yellowish  precipitate  of 
narcotin,  and  a  dark  brown  morphia  containing  narcotin.  By 
the  evaporations  of  the  mother  liquors  Plener  obtained  a  few 
more  cystals  ;  their  number  did  not  pay  for  the  trouble  of  sepa- 
rating them  from  the  extractive  matter.  Plener  does  not  men- 
tion whether  he  found  the  narcotin  contained  morphia,  and  Muck 
could  not  strengthen  the  statement  that  the  morphia  contained 
narcotin ;  for  according  to  Ramdohr's  process  he  obtained  only 
a  small  portion  of  morphia,  although  the  opium  was  of  the  best 
quality. 
ON  RHATANY  ROOT. 
By  Dr.  Schuohardt.* 
The  appearance  of  a  small  parcel  of  a  peculiar  kind  of  Rhatany 
Root  in  the  London  drug  market,  in  the  autumn  of  1854,  gave 
me  occasion  to  make  a  comparative  investigation  of  it  with  the 
well-known  Rhatany  Root  of  commerce. 
The  newly  imported  drug  was,  as  is  usual  in  English  wholesale 
trade,  distinguished  with  the  name  of  the  place  of  exportation, 
and  called  Savanilla  Rhatany,  or,  as  in  more  recent  importations, 
[2VW]  Granada  Rhatany. 
The  pharmacopoeias  of  Europe,  with  the  exception  of  the  French, 
sanction  the  use  of  the  root,  exclusively  of  Krameria  triandra  ; 
while  the  Codex  admits  the  root  of  Kr.  Ixine.  The  root  of  the 
first  plant  is  generally  known  under  the  simple  name  of  Rhatany 
*  Botanische  Zeitung,  3  and  10  Aug.,  1855. 
