68

ALKALOIDS AND

tallize on cooling. Purify the crystals byrepeated crystallizations.

Veratria.

Take any convenient quantity of Cevadilla :pour boiling water over it in a covered ves-sel, and let it macerate for twenty-four hours ;remove the cevadilla, squeeze it, and dry itthoroughly with a gentle heat. Beat it nowin a mortar, and separate the seeda from thecapsules by brisk agitation in a deep narrowvessel. Grind the seeds in a coffee-mill, andform them into a thick paste with Rectifiedspirit. Pack this firmly in a percolator, andpass rectified spirit through it tili the spiritceases to be coloured. Concentrate the spi-rituous Solutions by distillation so long asno deposit forms ; and pour the residuumwhile hot into twelve times its volume ofcold water. Filter through calico, and washthe residuum on the filter so long as thewashings precipitate with ammonia. Unitethe filtered liquid with the washings, and addan excess of ammonia. Collect the precipi-tate on a filter, wash it slightly with coldwater, and dry it first by Imbibition with fil-tering-paper, and then in the vapour-bath.A small additional quantity may be got byconcentrating the filtered ammoniacal fluidand atlowing it to cool.3