ALKALI 71 



Of Alkali manufactured in the United Kingdom the following quantities were 



EXPORTED t 



The IMPORTS of alkali were as follows : 



Alkali Imported 



cwts 

 92,497 





 153,041 



cwts 

 101,560 







144,995 



cwts 

 88,921 







164,530 



These quantities were from Germany, Spain, the United States, and other parts of 

 America, and small quantities from a few other places. 



ALKALI, ORGANIC, or AX.KAX.pXD. During the last few years the 

 organic alkaloids have so greatly increased in number, that a considerable volume 

 might be devoted to their history. In Watts's ' Chemical Dictionary ' will be found 

 a long list of the most important nitrogen-alkaloids, natural and artificial, with a 

 statement of the sources from which they are derived, or a description of their mode 

 of formation. There are, however, only a few which have become articles of 

 commerce. The principal sources from whence they are obtained are the following: 

 1. The animal kingdom. 2. The vegetable kingdom. 3. Destructive distillation. 

 4. The action of potash on the cyanic and cyanuric ethers. 5. The action of ammonia 

 on the iodides, &c. of the alcohol radicals. 6. The action of reducing agents on 

 nitre-compounds. The principal bases existing in the animal kingdom are creatine 

 and sarcosine. The vegetable kingdom is much richer in them, and yields a great 

 number of organic alkalis, of which several are of extreme value in medicine. Modern 

 chemists regard all organic alkalis as derived from the types ammonia or oxide of 

 ammonium. Their study has led to results of the most startling character. It has 

 been found that not only may the hydrogen in ammonia and oxide of ammonium be 

 replaced by metals and compound radicals without destruction of the alkaline character, 

 but oven the nitrogen may be replaced by phosphorus or arsenic, and yet the resulting 

 compounds remain powerfully basic. In studying the organic bases, chemists have 

 constantly had in view the artificial production of the bases of cinchona bark. It is 

 true that this result has not as yet been attained ; but, on the other hand, bodies have 

 been formed having so many analogies, both in constitution and properties, with the 

 substances sought, that it cannot be doubted the question is merely one of time. The 

 part performed by the bases existing in the juice of flesh has not been ascertained, 

 and no special remedial virtues have been detected in them ; but this is not the case 

 with those found in vegetables ; it is, in fact, among them that the most potent of all 

 medicines are found such, for example, as quinine and morphia. It is, moreover, 

 among vegetable alkaloids that we find the substances most inimical to life, for 

 aconitino, atropine, brucine, coniine, curarine, nicotine, solanine, strychnine, &c. &c., 

 are among their number. It must not bo forgotten, however, that, used with proper 

 precaution, even the most virulent are valuable medicines. The fearfully poisonous 

 nature of some of the organic bases, together with an idea that they are difficult to 

 detect, has unhappily led to their use by the poisoner; strychnine, especially, has 

 acquired a painful notoriety, in consequence of its employment by a medical man to 

 destroy persons whose lives ho had insured. Fortunately for society, the skill of the 

 analyst has more than kept pace with that of the poisoner ; and without regarding the 

 extravagant assertions made by some chemists as to the minute quantities of vegetable 

 poisons they are able to detect, it may safely be asserted that it would be very difficult 

 to administer a fatal dose of any ordinary vegetable poison without its being discovered. 

 Another check upon the poisoner is found in the fact that those most difficult of 

 isolation from complex mixtures are those which cause such distinct symptoms of 

 poisoning in the victim, that the medical attendant, if moderately observant, can 

 scarcely fail to have his suspicions aroused. 



Under the heads of the various alkaloids will bo found (where deemed of sufficient 



