66S SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1885. 



having a slight acid reaction, melting at 188-50 to 189°, and yielding 

 by decomposition benzoic acid and ecgonine. Merck recognised ir, as 

 benzoyl ecgonin, or ecognine in which one hydrogen atom is replaced 

 by benzoyl, O9H14NO3 — C7H5O. By heating this substance Vith potas- 

 sium hydroxide and methyliodide cocaine was obtained: 

 Benzoyl-ecgonine. Cocaiue. 



CieHigNO^+CHal+KOH = CnH2iNO,4-H20+Kl. 



The artificial product was found to have all the properties of the 

 natural. 



Almost simultaneously with this result of Merck, the synthesis was 

 accomplished by Scraup, who employed a mixture of benzoyl ecgonine, 

 sodiummethylate, and methyliodide. Scraup's method yielded, how- 

 ever, only about 4 per cent, of the theoretical amount, while Merck 

 obtained 80 per cent, of the theoretical yield. Subsequently Merck 

 succeeded in transforming ecgonine itself directly into cocaine by heat- 

 ing a mixture of methyliodide, benzoic anhydride, and anhydrous ecgo- 

 nine : 



2C9Hi5N03+(C7H50)20+2CH3l = CnH,.NO,HI+C9Hi5N03HI+ 



C^HsO.CHa. 



By introducing the radical ethyl a homologue of cocaine was ob- 

 tained which the author calls cociithyline. Merck is continuing his 

 researches, (Berichte d. chem. Ges., xviii, 1594, 22G4, and 2952.) 



The Fat or Wax obtained from Cinchona — Researches on Baric. — O. 

 Hesse obtains from the Ouprea barks cupreol, a compound which in 

 all points resembles quebrachol. This body crystallizes from alcohol 

 in colorless satiny leaflets, which quickly become dull in dry air. It is 

 readily soluble in chloroform, ether, and hot alcohol ; less readily in 

 petroleum ether, and cold alcohol, and iu water, ammonia, and potash- 

 lye not at all. It melts at 140°, and at higher temperatures it vola- 

 tilizes, unchanged in a current of hydrogen or carbonic acid. The solu- 

 tion in chloroform, when shaken with sulphuric acid of 1*76 spirit 

 grains, turns a blood red, as do the the chloroform solutions of quebra- 

 chol, cholesteriu, or phytosterin. Cinchol occurs in all true cinchona 

 barks, but not in cuprea bark. From alcohol it crystallizes partly in 

 long, almost acicular leaflets, partly in broad leaves, and always with 1 

 molecule of water. It loses a part of its water at 20° to 25°, and the 

 rest at 100°, or in the desiccator. Anhydrous cinchol melts at 139"^ and 

 in other respects has the i)roperties of cupreol. The author describes 

 the acetyl and propionyl derivations of cupreol. The china bark 

 contains, therefore, three isomeric bodies, having the formula C20H34O, 

 cu[)reol, cinchol, and quebrachol ; all three belong to the cholesterins. 

 {lA.ehig's Annalen, coxxvin, 288.) 



Relation between Antiseptic Power and Chemical Constitution (by Dr. 

 J. R. Duggan,) — The author has made some suggestive experiments on 



