13. Bi-Chloride of Platinum.—A dirty yellow amorphous precipitate.

14. Bi-Chloride of Mercury.-A white precipitate.

15. Tannic Acid.-A dirty white amorphous precipitate.

16. Terchloride of Gold.-A canary yellow amorphous precipitate, insoluble in an excess of the reagent, and insoluble in acetic acid, except upon the application of heat.

17. Sulphuric Acid.—This test should always be applied to the alkaloid or its salts in a dry state. If a small portion of the alkaloid is touched with a drop of strong sulphuric acid no color is immediately developed, but in the course of a minute a yellowishred, and then a beautiful bright red color appears. This color will appear immediately upon touching the veratria with the sulphuric acid if the slide upon which it is placed is warmed. The color is not destroyed by heat, but it disappears after standing two or three hours; the color will disappear in fifteen minutes if a small crystal of bi-chromate of potash is stirred upon the mixture.

Professor Wormley has, by this reagent, detected 5 of a grain of purified commercial veratria.

This last reagent-sulphuric acid-is the only one of all these that can be deemed decisively confirmatory of the presence of veratria; the other reagents are common to so many organic substances that they can only be regarded as confirmatory in connection with the action of sulphuric acid.

There is but one substance with which it would be at all likely to be confounded by this reaction of sulphuric acid, and that substance is salicine. Sulphuric acid produces a red color on solanine, narceine, papaverine, and piperine, but, as with salicine, the color is produced immediately upon the contact of the cold acid.

But the reaction of sulphuric acid on salicine and veratria differ, for whereas on salicine the color is immediately produced upon the application of sulphuric acid on a cold slide, we have seen that the color does not appear for a minute or more with veratria unless the slide or the acid is warmed.

The color produced is also different, for with veratria it is, for a moment, a yellowish, then a beautiful bright red, then an intense blood-red color; with salicine it is more of a purple red. There is the difference between the two colors that there is between bright arterial and venous blood. The color produced upon veratria lasts

but two or three hours, while that produced upon salicine lasts double that time.

But the behavior with other reagents would definitely settle the point if doubts were excited.

In a correspondence with Geo. J. Scattergood, of Philadelphia, on this subject, he says: "By treating commercial veratria with. ether I have separated it into two substances. That portion insoluble in ether behaves with sol. of iodohydrarg. potass., and with tr. iodine, on a muriate boiling, and sal ammonia added while yet warm, differently from the way pure veratria does.

"Veratria, soluble in ether, gives a beautiful pink-red or crimson color with sulphuric acid, and a butyric acid smell; the matter insoluble in ether gives a darker color, a greenish or brownish-red, and a musky odor."

It will thus be seen that in following the experiments of Prof. Wormley with veratria obtained from Veratrum sabadilla, we have obtained almost identical results with the veratria we have made from Veratrum viride; and have thus confirmed Mr. Richardson's observations, that the two alkaloids were identical in their chemical reactions.

NOTE." Extraction of Veratrine by Ether and Chloroform.

"1. The chloride of veratrine. One grain pure veratrine dissolved in 100 grains of water by the aid of hydrochloric acid, and then the solution agitated for several minutes with an equal volume of ether; the ether then drawn off and evaporated to dryness, leaves a residue of 3-100th grain of chloride of veratrine.

"One grain of veratrine in 100 grains water, by the aid of hydrochloric acid, and agitated with an equal volume of chloroform, and the chloroform evaporated to dryness, leaves an opaque vitreous residue of 33-100th grains of chloride of veratrine.

"2. Pure veratrine. One grain of veratrine dissolved by hydrochloric acid in 100 grains of water, and the solution rendered slightly alkaline by potash solution, gives a copious white precipitate, so dense as to make the liquid almost gelatinous. If now the mixture be mixed with an equal volume of ether and agitated for several minutes, and then the ethereal solution evaporated to dryness, it leaves a transparent vitreous residue of 91-100th grain of pure veratrine.

"When one grain of veratrine is treated as above and agitated with an equal volume of chloroform, and the chloroform solution evaporated to dryness, it leaves a perfectly transparent vitreous residue of 97-100th grain of pure veratrine.". From Ohio Med. and Surg. Journal, vol. xii., No. 6, p. 464, by Prof. Wormley.

DIVISION FOURTH.

DOSE AND MODE OF ADMINISTRATION.

By consulting other parts of this monograph it will be seen that the dose of the concentrated tincture (the formula for which is given in the first division of this section) varies in quantity and frequency of repetition according to the effect desired to be produced.

I shall be exceedingly explicit upon this point throughout the whole of the fifth section, and shall, therefore, need but few words at this place.

As an arterial sedative the dose, to an adult, may usually be from 2 to 3 minims, repeated every one, two, or three hours, according to the effect upon the pulse.

If it be deemed advisable to bring the patient promptly under its influence 3 minims may be given every hour until the pulse indicates its sedative influence, which will generally be felt before the third hour; it may then be repeated either in smaller doses or at longer intervals, but it will produce less unpleasant effects in small doses frequently administered, than in large ones at longer intervals.

Large doses are apt to produce vomiting, paleness, and alarming prostration, and the physician is frequently called in haste in consequence of the unpleasant effects of them. Nearly all instances.

of alarm have been produced by large doses, and not by small ones frequently repeated. Large doses, also, do not so readily control. the circulation, as excitement and vomiting supervene, and the pulse sometimes becomes thready, frequent, and irregular.

With children it is especially necessary to give it in small and frequent doses rather than in large ones at long intervals, and if administered in this manner alarming effects will seldom be produced.

Children, from the activity of the circulation and rapidity of excretion, will bear a rather larger proportional dose than adults; thus a child eight years of age will bear about one-half the dose an adult will. To a child of that age 2 minims may be given as a first dose, and one minim may be repeated afterward every one or two hours according to its effect upon the pulse. Unless in very urgent VOL. XIV.-16

cases it is not advisable to bring the pulse more than 10 or 15 beats below the normal standard, and to do this it is but required to increase or diminish the dose according to the state of the pulse, and give it at intervals of one or two hours rather than at longer periods.

With adults a given number of minims may be put into a given number of teaspoonfuls of water, and one or more teaspoonfuls given at a dose.

With children it is more easily given in sweetened water, or sweetened water and orange juice, or syrup of tolu.

SECTION THIRD.

PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION ON ANIMALS.

DIVISION FIRST.

EXPERIMENTS ELUCIDATING THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF
VERATRUM VIRIDE ON ANIMALS.

EXPERIMENT I.—Ten drops of the concentrated tincture put into a gelatine capsule, were passed down the throat of a mongrel dog weighing about twenty pounds; the dog had eaten nothing for six hours, and the pulse was beating 90 in the minute. In an hour and ten minutes after taking it, the dog vomited freely, and twice afterwards. In an hour and a half after the dose was given, the pulse was 60; in two hours and a half, 53. In four hours it had risen to 56; the dog seemed well, and ate heartily.

EXPERIMENT II.-Twenty drops of the same tincture were given to a dog who had been fasting for twelve hours. In an hour and seventeen minutes he vomited, and continued to strain and vomit for some time. At the expiration of two hours and a half, the same dose was repeated, the pulse then beating 61 in the minute. The dog, exhausted by the previous vomiting, lay down and did not attempt to stand up. In four hours from the administration of the first dose, the pulse was 29 in the minute, and the dose was again. repeated. The retching was frequent, but nothing but a small quantity of viscid mucus and bile was thrown up. In five hours. from the administration of the first dose, the pulse was 21, soft, creeping, and easily compressible. The pupils were fixed, but of ordinary size. They did not contract in strong light, but the lids were closed if anything was pointed at the eye. The dog would not move when struck with a switch. Six hours from the first dose, the twenty drops were repeated, the pulse being then 18, and intermittent. At the seventh hour there was great prostration, the retching continued, the pulse was irregular, intermittent, and easily compressed, and beating 17 in the minute. The dog would