ON SOME VEGETABLE ALKALOIDS. 43 
had not, it is true, therich red-purple afforded in former instances, but in all other 
characters was quite the same. 
The mother liquor of the grains, when distilled to a syrup, and, after the addi- 
tion of some water, finally evaporated to dryness, left a red and green resinous 
residue, which dissolved incompletely in hot water; the aqueous solution again 
left a resin, only partially soluble, on evaporation ; there exists in this solution a 
base—partially, at least—precipitable by ammonia, as an iodine compound. It is 
possible this secondary product may somewhat affect the characters of the iodide 
of ethylostrychnine, which, I think, is certainly formed, as might have been ex- 
pected. 
Action of Chloride of Amyl upon Strychnine. 
Chloride of Amylostrychnine—Strychnine, placed in contact with chloride of 
amyl, is found to undergo, very slowly, a change quite analogous to that with 
iodide of ethyl under the same circumstances. About eighty grains of the finely 
powdered alkaloid being sealed up in a strong tube with two fluid drachms of 
chloride of amyl, and some ten of absolute alcohol, the vessel was placed in boil- 
ing water, and retained at the same temperature for a long time. Complete solu- 
tion took place in about fifty hours, and the heat was continued nearly forty- 
eight hours longer. The rather oily liquid deposited nothing on cooling, and left, 
on distillation to a syrup, a thick mass which finally dried up to a crystalline re- 
sidue. This proved to be the chlorine salt of a base generally analogous to the 
ethyl product; it was very soluble in hot water, and crystallizable from a very 
strong boiling solution on cooling, or a more dilute one by evaporation, in fine 
colourless prisms. 
I must mention that, in the first place, the whole of the product was dissolved 
in hot water, and the fluid evaporated to crystallization; the resulting crystals 
have their composition represented in analysis I. below, and must have contained 
any strychnine salt, or a great part of it, had any been originally present, as this 
is less soluble than the new one. 
The entire mother liquor of these crystals was super-saturated by ammonia, 
no precipitate appeared for some time; on stirring, however, a certain quantity of 
a crystalline deposit fell, which presented the characters of strychnine. The 
ammoniacal fiuid was suffered to stand two hours or so, and then filtered and eva- 
porated to dryness at 212°. The residue was found to be completely soluble in 
hot water, or left but a little insoluble strychnine, and was made to crystallize like 
the first product. These are the crystals employed in analysis II., and could con- 
tain no, strychnine. 
The identity of the analytical results furnished by these two salts, and the ap- 
pearance of the strychnine, caused me to make direct experiments with ammonia, 
to be described presently; in the meantime, the analyses of the salts, obtained as 
VOL. XXI. PART I. M 
