32 ACTION OF HALOGEN COMPOUNDS OF ETHYL AND AMYL 
fit for analysis than that of narcotine, the composition of the base was ascertained 
by converting it into a platinum compound, which was a very pale yellow amor- 
phous substance, and gave the following result on analysis :— 
3-265 grains, dried at 212°, gave 
0-720 ~,, platinum, 
equal to a percentage of 22°38; 22:57 corresponds to the formula of the cotar- 
nine salt, 
C,, H,, NO,, HCl, Pt Cl,. 
This artificial product then comports itself exactly like the alkaloids papave- 
rine and narcotine; and the reaction is no doubt of the same nature. 
The formation of these salts of the alkaloids, in cases where water is present, 
is possibly brought about by a change, observed by FrankLAnpD* to take place 
between iodide of ethyl and water in a sealed tube at 300° Fahr.; the results 
of this reaction are, according te this chemist, hydriodic acid and ether. It seems 
not improbable that the presence of a basic substance may determine this decom- 
position at a much lower temperature. 
On Strychnine. 
Having examined the action of the alcohol iodides on a number of bases with 
only one equivalent of nitrogen, I was anxious to ascertain the deportment of a 
base containing, like strychnine, two atoms of this element, in the hope of throw- 
ing some light on the function of the second equivalent. The researches of 
Hofmann, on a great variety of alkaloids, have shewn us that the volatile bases 
starting from the original type ammonia, and passing upwards to the most com- 
plicated substances, may be viewed as nitrogen attached to basic hydrogen 
alone, or to it in combination with hydrocarbons performing its functions, 
or finally to hydrocarbons occupying the entire hydrogen part of the molecule. 
In the fixed vegetable alkaloids, we see oxygen also included in the system ; 
and if, as I have attempted to prove in the case of some of these, they 
are comparable with nitryle bases, the hydrogen part of the compounds must 
contain oxygenized hydrocarbons acting as hydrogen. In the case of a base 
containing two atoms of nitrogen, it is possible that this element performs as it 
were two parts; one may be referable to the function of that in any ammonia, 
amidogen, or nitryle base, while the other may be more analogous to that property 
in virtue of which, in combination with oxygen, as NO,, it replaces an atom of 
hydrogen in the carbohydrogen forming part of the compound molecule. The 
* Gerhardt Suite de Berzelius, i1., p. 823. 
