316 SELECTED ARTICLES. 
tained. With this design, we have undertaken to isolate 
these principles, and we believe that we have completely suc- 
ceeded. 
Our own analytical investigations, similar to those which 
have recently been published, have demonstrated that the 
Piper cubeba is composed of wax, green and yellow volatile 
oils, a balsamic resin, analogous to the balsam of copaiva, chlo- 
ride of sodium, extractive matter, a peculiar substance called 
cubebin, having some resemblance to piperin, and obtained 
in the same way, and finally ligneous matter. 
This ligneous matter forms about -Jths of the whole sub- 
stance, all the rest united form but ith. It results from these 
data that four fifths of the medicine used are inert, and with- 
out action upon the animal system. Although the cubebin 
has been many years discovered, we are not aware that the 
active properties of cubebs have been attributed to it alone, 
and we believe that they have justly been referred to the combi- 
nation of the principles which have been enumerated, and par- 
ticularly the volatile oils and balsamic resin, of which the ac- 
tion is extremely energetic. 
These facts once established, it is of the highest conse- 
quence to separate all the principles from the ligneous matter, 
with the aid of a vehicle proper for each of them, and then to 
reunite them to form a uniform medicinal article, and we be- 
lieve we have accomplished this by the following method : 
The cubebs, reduced to a coarse powder, is placed in an 
apparatus for displacement and exhausted by ether, which dis- 
solves the wax, the volatile oils and balsamic resin. The 
residue is submitted to the action of hydro-alcohol at 20° 
which dissolves the extractive principle and chloride of so- 
dium. The alcohol and ether are separated by distillation in 
part, and separately. Evaporation of the hydro-alcoholic so- 
lution is then carried on in a water bath until it possesses the 
consistence of a soft extract, to which the ethereal product is 
added; the evaporation being continued for a short time vola- 
tilizes the ether completely, and a strongly aromatic extract 
is obtained, as consistent as honey, which it is improper to 
