RESEARCHES  ON  ALOETINE. 
543 
peels  off.  The  color  of  the  wood  is  yellowish-white,  almost  alike 
in  both  roots  ;  its  fracture  in  both  the  old  and  new  sort  of  Rhat- 
any, and  in  old  as  well  as  young  roots,  is  of  the  same  character, 
namely,  short-splintery  \_hurzsplitterig.']  The  fracture  of  the 
bark,  on  the  other  hand,  is  very  different  in  the  two  sorts,  as 
might  be  expected  from  the  dissimilar  texture  of  the  layers.  The 
bark  of  Payta  Rhatany  has  a  fibrous  fracture,  arising  from  the 
nature  of  its  inner  layer  ;  the  middle  and  outer  layers  break  more 
evenly.  The  bark  of  Savanilla  Rhatany  has  a  nearly  even  frac- 
ture, its  outer  and  middle  layers  presenting  a  somewhat  powdery 
appearance. 
The  bark  of  Payta  Rhatany,  from  its  toughness,  cannot  be  re- 
duced to  powder  without  considerable  labor,  but  the  bark  of 
Savanilla  Rhatany  can  be  powdered  without  any  particular  diffi- 
culty. The  powder  of  the  latter  is  of  a  purplish  red,  resembling 
very  much  that  of  tormentilla  root ;  while  the  powder  of  the  root 
of  Peruvian  Rhatany  is  easily  distinguished  by  its  tint  of  brown- 
ish-red and  cinnamon. — London  jPharm.  Journ.  Aug.  1856. 
(To  be  continued.) 
RESEARCHES  ON  ALOETINE* 
By  M.  E.  Robiquet. 
The  subject  with  which  I  am  now  about  to  entertain  the  Acade- 
my, is  not  perfectly  new,  and  it  has  already  had  long  and  fruit- 
less investigation  at  my  hands. 
Ten  years  ago,  I  published  my  first  work  on  the  juice  of  aloes, 
and  I  was  enabled,  among  other  results,  to  prove  that  :— 
1.  This  juice  exists  in  the  different  varieties  of  aloes,  in  the 
state  of  colorless  liquid,  acquiring  the  appearance  and  chemical 
constitution  which  we  are  acquainted  with,  in  consequence  of  an 
absorption  of  oxygen. 
2.  Socotrine  also  contains  a  proximate  principle,  to  which  I 
gave  the  name  of  aloetine,  formed  of  carbon,  hydrogen,  and  oxy- 
gen, without  a  trace  of  nitrogen,  but  which  could  not  be  crystal- 
lised. 
I  shall  only  speak  from  memory  of  chloralise,  and  chloralolle, 
the  chlorated  derivatives  of  aloetine,  and  only  because,  their  ex- 
*  Read  to  the  Academie  de  Mtdecine,  Feb.  26,  1856. 
