Issue 10, pp. 753-832, October 1861, SMSJ

istryj1861.] Remedies of the Southern Confederacy. 757Chemical Composition.—According to MM. Pelletier andCaventou, the bark of Salix albacontains bitter yellow coloringmatter, green fatty matter, similar to that found in cinchona,tannin, resinous extract, gum, wax, woody fibre,magnesian salt containing an organic acid.and aThese chemists failed to isolate the most important of all itsingredients, salicin,which was most probably mixed with thebitter yellow coloring matter. Subsequently, in 1828,Buchnei, of Germany, discovered a peculiar principle,which has since been discovered in fourteen species of salix,and eight species of populus. M. Fontana and Ttigatelli, ofItaly, discovered this principle shortly after Buchner. M.Leroux, of France, appears to have been the first to accuratelyinvestigate its properties. When pure, salicin presents itselfas white, shining, slender, inodorous, very bitter cystals, insolublein ether and oil of turpentine, soluble in alcohol,much more soluble in boiling than in cold water.According to Merck,- it may be prepared in the followingmanner :Dried or fresh willow bark is cut small, and exhausted byrepeated boiling with water. The decoctions are concentrated,and, while boiling, treated with litharge till the liquorappears nearly colorless. The dissolved oxide of lead isremoved, first by sulphuric acid, afterward- by Biilphuret ofbarium, and after the separation of sulphuret oflead, evaporated,when salicin crystallizes ; and is purified by repeatedsolution and cystallization. From willow bark which is freshand rich in salicin, it may be obtained by cautious evaporationof the cold aqueous infusion. The oxide of lead remfrom the solution gum, tannin and extractive matter whichwould impede the crystallization of the salicin. It also combineswith the salicin, forming a kind of salt, which is decoindby the sulphuric acid and sulphuret of barium. I:latter be carefully added, neither sulphuric acid nor baryta'Turn-I7th ed. p