An experimental inquiry into the physiological action of ergot of rye / [Samuel Wright].

  • Wright, Samuel.
Date:
[1840?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An experimental inquiry into the physiological action of ergot of rye / [Samuel Wright]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    dine darkens its colour merely. Iodide of potassium, no change. Persulphate of iron, no change. Nitrate and acetate of lead form a bulky precipitate of a dirty violet colour, which is slow in fall¬ ing. Protochloride of tin gives an abundant precipitate of a light-yellow colour. Chloride of gold, a yellowish deposit. In¬ fusion of galls, a brown coagulum, which dissolves on being agi¬ tated. Alcohol occasions a slight opacity. Sulphuric ether when agitated with it forms a solution, which, on standing, separates into three strata,—the lowest, consisting of the aqueous solution, the middle one, of oil dissolved in ether, and the upper one, of pure ether. Alkalized water, when boiled upon ergot, forms a saponaceous solution, in which the greater part of the colouring matter prevails. Alcohol removes the active principle of ergot, with a very small portion of its colouring matter. Ethers, sulphuret of carbon, naph¬ tha, and the essential oils also separate its active principle, but leave the pigment untouched. Water, therefore, pure or alkaliz¬ ed, is the best solvent of the colouring matter. This colouring matter is capable of being fixed as a dye; for, if wool or silk, prepared by digestion in sulphate of alumina, be dipped into a solution of ergot, it becomes beautifully tinged with a hue, varying from a light pink to a deep violet.* Chemical Composition.—Ergot of rye has been analysed by Vauquelin, -f- Bonvoisin, } Pettenkofer, § Winkler, || Keyl,^J Robert,** and others. Vauquelin obtained a pale yellow pigment, soluble in alcohol; a white oil of a sweetish taste ; a violet-coloured pigment, inso¬ luble in alcohol; an acid, resembling the phosphoric; and a ve- geto-animal matter, which easily putrefied, and afforded a thick oil and ammonia by distillation. Pettenkofer, in addition to these constituents, obtained a red¬ dish-yellow resin, phosphates, and a little acetic acid. Winkler found gum, osmazome, salts of soda and ammonia, a modified fecula, in union with colouring matter, a thick, rancid, slightly acrid oil, and a thick reddish fluid, which had a highly disagreeable empyreumatic odour, a nauseous, sweetish, and slight¬ ly acrid taste—composed chiefly of resin, extractive, and colour¬ ing matter. * Vauquelin, Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Tom. iii. p. 337« t Buchner’s Repertor. fiir die d. Pharmacie, Th. 3, and Bulletins de la Soc. Philomatique, 1817, 38. t Gehlen’s Journ. d. Chimie, Th. C. 1800’ § Buchner’s Repert. 3. 65. || Rust’s Magazin. Bd. 25. Hft. 1, p. 47-49. 5[ De Secali Cornuto, etc. Diss. Ber. 1823. ** Rust’s Magazin, Bd. 25, Hft. 1, p. 41, sqq.