A COLCHICINE-LIKE SUBSTANCE. 181 



ti< u made by himself from the plant. The supposed alka- 

 loid was given to SELMI, of Bologna, for further study. It 

 was removed from alkaline solutions by ether. When 

 heated with phosphoric acid it became red, and when 

 brought in contact with concentrated sulphuric acid, red- 

 dish-brown. In these tests the substance resembled dclph- 

 inine, but with sulphuric acid and bromine water, also 

 with FKOUDK'S reagent, the colorations characteristic of 

 the vegetable alkaloid failed to appear. Moreover, SELMI 

 showed that delphinine gave the following reactions, to 

 which the suspected substance did not respond : (1) Delph- 

 inine dissolved in ether, and treated with a freshly prepared 

 ethereal solution of platinic chloride, gives a white, floccu- 

 lent precipitate which is insoluble in an equal volume of 

 absolute alcohol. (2) Delphinine gives precipitates with 

 auro-stxlium hyposulphite, and with a sulphuric acid solu- 

 tion of cupro-sodium hyposulphite, the latter precipitate 

 l>eing soluble in an excess of the reagent. 



Finally, CIACTIA and VELL.A showed that while delph- 

 inine arrests the heart of the frog in diastole, the suspected 

 substance arrests it in systole. 



A COLCHICINE-LIKE SUBSTANCE. BAUMERT found in 



a suspected case of poisoning, twenty-two months after 

 death, a substance which gave many of the reactions for 

 colchicine. It was extracted from acid solutions with ther, 

 to which it imparted a yellow color. On evaporation of 

 the ether a yellow, amorphous substance remained, and 

 this dissolved in warm water with yellow coloration. It 

 could be extracted from acid solutions also by chloroform, 

 ben/ol, and amylic alcohol, but not by petroleum ether. It 

 was removed with much more difficulty from alkaline 

 solutions. 



All the extracts were yellow, and left on evaporation a 

 feebly alkaline, markedly bitter, sharp-tasting, amorphous, 

 yellow residue, which dissolved in water and dilute acids 

 incompletely, forming a resin. When this resin was dis- 

 solved in dilute sodium hydrate, and the solution rendered 



