264 M. Brandes on Atropium. [April, 



The colour of atropium depends in a great measure upon its 

 state of purity. When perfectly pure it is snow white, other- 

 wise it is more or less yellowisn-white. When pure, it has no 

 taste. When strongly heated, it is decomposed, is charred, and 

 gives out an empyreumatic smell. 



Cold water has hardly any effect upon dried atropium, but it 

 dissolves a small quantity when it is recently precipitated ; and 

 boiling water dissolves still more. 



Cold alcohol dissolves but a minute portion of atropium, but 

 when boihng it readily dissolves it. Atropium, however, is 

 much more difficultly dissolved by boiling alcohol than mor- 

 phium, and while the solution is coohng, the greatest part is 

 again deposited. In order to ascertain whether, after the crys- 

 tallization of the atropium, the remaining spirit contained any 

 quantity of this body, I evaporated two drachms of it, but they 

 left scarcely a trace of it. 



Ether and oil of turpentine had even, when boihng, little 

 effect upon atropium. Hot oil of ahnonds dissolved a much 

 greater quantity of it, and seemed to become less fluid. The 

 experiment, however, was made on so small a scale that 1 was 

 tmable to ascertain whether the oil had undergone the same 

 alterations which Chevreul and Braconnot observed in saponi- 

 fied fat, and which BouUay believes he has produced by picro- 

 toxium. 



Salts of Atropium. — Atropium forms salts with acids, the 

 greater number of which are readily soluble in water; but I 

 never have succeeded in obtaining them perfectly neutral, or in 

 freeing them completely from adhering acid. Even when care- 

 fully washed and pressed between fine paper, they reddened 

 litmus paper in most cases ; but when care was taken, there 

 was only a trace of free acid remaining, and which cannot be 

 regarded as an objection to considering the atropium as the basis 

 of salts ; for the whole quantity of acid combined with the alka- 

 line body would have produced a much more powerful effect 

 upon litmus paper, had it not been attracted and neutralised by 

 this substance. 



Atropium and Sulphuric Acid. — Atropium, when slightly 

 -heated with concentrated sulphuric acid, is decomposed and 

 blackens; a similar effect takes place when sulphate of atropium 

 in its crystalline state is dried without being previously washed 

 with alcohol, and deprived of the adhering acid. Diluted sul- 

 phuric acid dissolves atropium after some time, and more easily 

 when the alkali has not been dried. Exposed to spontaneous 

 evaporation, crystals of sulphate of atropium appear, of which I, 

 however, could not ascertain the form with sufficient accuracy, 

 there existing a great variety of crystals, and the planes being 

 very imperfect. The most perfect seemed to me to be rhomboe- 

 drical tables and prisms with square bases ; the lateral planes 

 partly truncated, and the lower acute angle of the new planes 



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