BY JAMKS M. PETRIE. 763 



sium ferrocyanide was added, in order to separate any strychnine. 

 This ferrocyanide precipitate and filtrate were separately ex- 

 amined. 



Results. — The small ferrocyanide precipitate, when extracted 

 with ammonia and chloroform, and the latter distilled off, left a 

 residue, which — (1) gave all the general reactions for alkaloids, 

 (2) with sulphuric acid and bichromate did not give the character- 

 istic colour-reaction for strychnine, (3) gave no red colouration 

 with nitric acid. This ferrocyanide precipitate, therefore, con- 

 tained an alkaloid, which was not strychnine, and not brucine. 



The filtrate from the ferrocyanide was also shaken out with 

 alkali-chloroform, the solvent removed by distillation and the resi- 

 due tested: (1) It gave all the general alkaloidal reactions, (2) it 

 did not give the strychnine colour-test with sulphuric acid and 

 bichromate, but (3) gave a faint positive reaction with nitric acid 

 for brucine. The ferrocyanide filtrate, therefore, also contained an 

 alkaloid, which was not strychnine, and in which only a trace of 

 brucine was detected. 



The alkaloid in both ferrocyanide precipitate and filtrate, when 

 dissolved in a little dilute acid, gave precipitations with Wagner 

 and Mayer solutions, picric, phosphotungstic, phosphomolybdic, 

 tannic acids. When treated with excess of sodium hydroxide and 

 filtered, the solution gave with hydrochloric acid the purple colour 

 due to stryclmicine, a reaction which the discoverer states to be 

 characteristic of this new alkaloid. Barium hydroxide in excess 

 and the solution then acidified with hydrochloric acid, also gives 

 the characteristic purple reaction. 



References. — It is noteworthy that, in the literature on the 

 Strychnos species, before van Boorsma's discovery, there are defi- 

 nite indications of a probable new alkaloid; for example, Shen- 

 stone (Journ. Chem. Soc. 37, 1880, 235) states, that the igasurine 

 of Desnoix is a mixture of strychnine and brucine, with a trace of 

 some persistent impurity. Koefoed (Chem. Zeit., Mar. 16, 1889, 

 78; thro. Pharm. Journ. xix., 864) shows evidence which led him to 

 conclude, that commercial strychnine and brucine each contain two 



