8 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
The insoluble residue was dissolved with effervescence by- 
muriatic acid ; this solution gave a precipitate on the addition 
of oxalate of soda, and with ferrocyanate of potash a blue pre- 
cipitate. 
The best mode of preparing this root is, to immediately 
cut it into transverse slices, about one-fourth of an inch in 
thickness, in order to dry it as speedily as possible at the com- 
mon atmospheric temperature in the shade; as soon as com- 
pletely dried it should be kept in close stopped bottles, care- 
fully secluded from the light, which appears to have as great 
a deteriorating effect on it as exposure to the air; it should 
never be powdered except immediately before being used, as 
in this state it more rapidly loses its peculiar virtues, and be- 
comes wholly inert. 
The following are presumed to be the chief constituents of 
this root, judging from the preceding experiments, viz: 
Starch, gum, resin, saccharine matter, a fixed oil, a volatile 
fatty matter, volatile oil, wax, colouring matter, a peculiar 
substance soluble in acids, and precipitated by alkalies, lignin, 
protoxide of iron, and salts of lime and potassa. 
Seeds. — The Symplocarpus perfects its seeds about the lat- 
ter end of September, or beginning of October; they are of 
various shapes and sizes, some of them roundish, others very 
much flattened and angular, with the hilum strongly marked; 
they vary in size from a coriander to that of a hazel nut; of an 
umber colour externally, with the interior portion of a fleshy 
consistence, and blueish white colour, sometimes yellowish; 
when rubbed between the fingers of an unctuous feel in the 
fresh state, but when dried not so much so; on being cut and 
drawn across paper they leave an oily trace, which is not 
volatile; at first they are of a sweetish, rich taste; but on 
being chewed for a short time create a most intolerable 
prickling sensation on the tongue, which is very permanent, 
and followed by a sense of soreness of the mouth. 
In the whole state they have no smell, but on being bruised 
they give out all the peculiar alliacious odour of the plant 
