S?^ Dr. Blyth on the Composition of Narcotine. 



a light orange colour, and is at once distinguished from the 

 corresponding salt of cotarnin and narcotine by its colour and 

 crystalline form, but more particularly by the action of am- 

 monia. Upon the two latter salts this volatile alkali has no 

 action, further than slightly darkening the platinchloride of 

 narcotine, whilst platinchloride of narcogenin becomes paler 

 on contact with it, and suffers complete decomposition by 

 the application of heat. 



I. 0*6455 grm. of platinchloride of narcogenin on combus- 

 tion left metallic platinum 0*1 18 grm. = 18*03 per cent.; cor- 

 responding atomic weight of the platinum salt = 6841. 



II. 0*6008 grm. gave platinum 0*1088 grm. = 18*10 per 

 cent.; atomic weight =6814. 



III. 1*1735 grm. gave platinum 0*2105 grm, = 17*93 per 

 cent. ; atomic weight = 6879. 



IV. 0*5803 grm. of another salt, which had been dissolved 

 in boiling water and crystallized, gave platinum 0*1076 grm. 

 = 18*54 per cent.; corresponding atomic weight = 6653. 



The salts employed in the determination of these atomic 

 weights were of different preparation. The following ana- 

 lyses are given rather as approximate than as accurate, on 

 account of the difficulty of obtaining platinchloride of narco- 

 genin quite free from other matters. 



On combustion with chromate of lead, — 



I. 0*390 grm. gave carbonic acid 0*584, water 0*140 

 II. 0*2665 ... ... 0*3955, ... 0*1002 



III. 0*286 ... ... 0*4255, ... 0*109 



In 100 parts. 



I. II. IFI. 



Carbon . . 40*83 40*47 40*57 



Hydrogen . 3-98 4*12 4*23 



These numbers correspond to the following formula :— 



Calculated. Found. 



Cge =2700 40*38 40*62 mean. 



U^Q= 250 3-73 4-11 ... 



N = 177 



Oio=iooo 



Pt =1233 18*44 18*15 ... 



CI3 =1328 

 6688 

 Rational formula, Cgg H^g N Ojo + HCl + PtClg. 

 To separate narcogenin from its platinum compound, I in- 

 tended to pursue the same plan as for the decomposition of 

 the corresponding cotarnin salt. Complete decomposition, 



