Am.  Jour.  Pharin.) 
March,  1909.  j 
Scammony  Resin. 
107 
amount  of  resin  in  this  root,  but  it  is  quite  possible  that  this  is  due 
to  the  quality  on  the  market  at  the  different  times.  The  yield  of 
the  five  samples  of  true  scammony  is  very  similar,  ranging  from  7.7 
to  8.5  per  cent.,  so  that  the  drug  which  yields  a  very  high  percentage 
of  resin  may  be  looked  upon  as  one  containing  false  scammony. 
Regarding  the  physiological  action  of  the  resin  from  these  two 
varieties  of  drug  it  is  not  in  my  province  to  speak,  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  this  work  was  wholly  upon  the  chemical  characteristics  of 
the  resin. 
Moisture. — This  was  determined  by  carefully  weighing  off  2 
grammes  of  the  powdered  resin  into  a  tared  crucible  and  heating 
at  ioo°  C.  for  six  hours.  Incidentally  it  may  be  remarked  that  it 
is  preferable  not  to  have  the  resin  too  finely  powdered;  otherwise, 
as  it  electrifies  with  much  ease,  it  is  difficult  to  properly  weigh  and 
effect  its  transfer  from  the  watch-glass  of  the  balance  to  the  various 
containers  used.  The  idea  in  weighing  it  into  a  crucible  is  that  the 
same  sample  may  subsequently  be  used  for  the  determination  of  the 
ash.  The  amount  of  moisture  found  was  somewhat  less  than  has 
been  found  by  a  number  of  observers,  but  was  nevertheless  about 
what  might  have  been  expected  in  a  carefully  prepared  resin  of  this 
or  other  description. 
Ash. — The  ash  was.  determined  by  simple  ignition  of  the  resin 
previously  used  for  determination  of  moisture.  A  very  great  dis- 
crepancy is  to  be  noted  between  the  amount  of  ash  found  in  these 
samples  and  the  amount  of  ash  as  recorded  by  some  other  experi- 
menters. In  "  Notes  on  Ash  Yield  of  Crude  Drugs  "  by  Chattaway 
and  Moor  (Analyst,  1903,  202)  about  6  per  cent,  is  given  as  the 
amount  of  ash  found  in  scammony  resin.  In  the  same  article  quota- 
tions on  the  amount  of  resin-ash  are  made  from  Moor  and  Priest, 
they  finding  7.9,  4.9  and  6.1  per  cent,  in  three  samples.  J.  Barclay 
is  also  quoted  as  finding  3.4  per  cent,  ash  in  a  sample.  The  amounts 
of  ash  here  found,  none  of  which  exceed  0.22  per  cent.,  are  therefore 
indicative  of  excellent  samples  of  resin,  and  these  agree  well  with 
the  results  obtained  by  Cowie  and  by  Cowie  and  Brander.  An  ash 
so  low  as  that  of  number  4  (0.05  per  cent.)  can  be  considered  as 
negligible  as  regards  its  effects  upon  the  purity  of  the  resin. 
Ether  Solubility. — This  was  determined  by  treating  5  grammes 
of  the  powdered  resin  with  100  c.c.  of  ether  (using  the  U.  S.  P. 
quality),  letting  stand  in  a  tightly  stoppered  flask  with  occasional 
shaking  until  the  resin  was  wholly  dissolved,  or  preferably  over 
