202 ALKALOIDS. 



alkaloids, I have described such of their properties only as are of 

 importance for the object of this work, and refer students that 

 may desire more minute details to any good text- or hand-book of 

 chemistry. I may be permitted to give a few literary references, 

 and make a few observations on some of the alkaloids with which 

 we are less familiar, and about which little or no information is 

 to be found in text- or hand-books, in case it should be necessary 

 in the course of an analysis to compare a substance with any one 

 of them. 



For ergotinine and picrosderotine, compare Tanret 1 and Blum- 

 berg. 2 Two volumes of cone, sulphuric acid colour an aqueous 

 solution of the former, first red, then bluish-violet, of the latter 

 violet. With an equal volume of Frohde's reagent, both are 

 coloured violet, passing to blue. Both can be extracted from 

 solution by agitation with ether. The latter, which is resinous 

 and very sparingly soluble in water, is possibly a decomposition- 

 product of the former. 



For curarine, which is freely soluble in water, see Preyer 3 and 

 Sachs. 4 This alkaloid cannot be removed from solution by shak- 

 ing with ether, etc. Its reactions are described in L71. Chloro- 

 form extracts small quantities (sufficient for the reactions and 

 physiological experiments) of the alkaloid from the residue 

 (finely powdered) obtained by evaporating its aqueous solution. 

 (Compare also 64, 68, 182.) 



For erythrophlceine see Gallois and Hardy. 5 It is soluble in 

 water, can be extracted by shaking with acetic ether, and is 

 coloured violet by sulphuric acid and permanganate of potassium. 



Lobeliine, see Lewis and Eichardson. 6 (Cf. 56.) 



1 Repert. de Pharm. N. Se"r. iii. 308, 1875 ; v. 226, 1877 (Pharm. Journ. 

 and Trans. [3], vii. 249. 1876 ; vi. 522, 1875). 



2 Ein. Beitr. z. Kenntniss d. Mutterkornalk. Diss. Dorpat, 1878 (Pharm. 

 Journ. and Trans. [3], ix. 23). 



3 Zeitschr. f. Chem. vi. 382, Compt. rend. 1. 1828, 1865. See also Koch, 

 ' Vers. liber die Nachweisbarkeit d. Curarins in thier. Fliissigk. und Geweben, ' 

 Diss. Dorpat, 1870, and my 'Beitr. z. gerichtl. Chem.' 170, St. Petersburg, 

 1871. 



4 Annal. d. Chem. u. Pharm., cxci. 254, 1878 (Journ. Chem. Soc. xxxiv. 

 517). See also my observations in the Jahresb. f. Pharm. for the same year. 



5 Union Pharm. xvii. 202, 1876 (Pharm. Journ. and Trans. [3], vii. 77, 

 1876), also xix. 359, 1878. 



6 Amer. Journ. Pharm. 293, 1872 ; Pharm. Journ. and Trans. [3], viii. 561, 

 1878. See also my 'Beitr. z. gerichtl. Chem.' 18. 



