APPENDIX. 87 
The alkaloids were extracted from the root by the following process, 
which precludes the possibility of the occurrence of hydrolysis, &c. :— 
The solution obtained by percolating with cold rectified fusel oil 
(b. p. 100 —132°) was agitated with water acidified with 1 per cent. of 
sulphuric acid, and the resin having been removed by extracting the 
acid solution so obtained with chloroform, the liquid was made just 
alkaline with dilute ammonia and extracted with ether, which dis- 
solved out a considerable quantity of alkaloid, but Jeft in solution a 
further and smaller quantity, which was subsequently extracted 
by grap with chloroform. The alkaloid soluble in ether was 
obtained as a gum-like mass incapable of crystallization. By con- 
version sate bromhydride it was separated into a crystallizable and 
an uncrystallizable salt, 
The crystalline product was identified as the salt of aconitine, the 
erystalline and highly toxic alkaloid already described by one of the 
authors and Dr. W. H. Ince (@. 8. Trans., 1891). The alkaloid 
separated from the pure bromhydride siaftad at 188°5° (corr.), and 
afforded on combusti tion numbers agreeing with the formula 0**H* 
No? 
pre eviously recorded. As some doubt exists as to the solubility of 
aconitine in water, a determination was carefully made with this pure 
specimen. The mean of two determinations gave 1 gram in 4,431 
grams of water as the solubility at 22°; Ji urgens had previously 
recorded the far greater solubility of 1 in 7 745 at the same temperature. 
The non-crystalline bromhydride furnished a gummy alkaloid 
soluble in ether and alcohol, but only sparingly soluble in water, 
the aqueous solution being alkaline to litmus, and very bitter, but 
not giving rise to the tingling sensation so characteristic of aconitine, 
Not only the alkaloid, but also the chlorhydride, sulphate, nitrate and 
aurichloride prepared from it could not be crystallized, This alkaloid 
is not identical either with aconine or with the picraconitine of Wright 
and Luff. A full account of it will be given in a later paper, con- 
siderable progress having already been made in the most difficult 
task of isolating it in a pure state. The authors propose to assign to 
it the name napelline, which was first given to the alkaloid now known 
as. pseudaconitine, and afterwards by Hiibschmann to a substance 
which the work of Wright and Luff showed to be a mixture chiefly 
composed of aconine, The napelline obtained in the manner described 
