Botanic Remedies 71 



one or other, or both, side chains hung on the 

 salicyl ion. The synthetic chemist can make in- 

 numerable compounds of the salicyl ion, giving 

 their chemical formulae accurately and a theoretic 

 graphic formula of each. That is as far as he can 

 go. Graphic formulae are easy to construct, but 

 hard to prove or disprove. 



I can set up the contention that the graphic 

 formulae of the natural and the synthetic salicylic 

 acids are not similar, but I can't prove it; and the 

 synthetic chemist may claim the opposite, and have 

 considerable difficulty to prove the argument. 

 But we do know that atropine, hyoscyamine, and 

 hyoscine have the same formula (C 17 H 23 NO 3 ) given 

 for them in some texts, but differing graphic for- 

 mulae. But the chemist meets this with the ex- 

 planation of "racemisation." Now atropine (or 

 hyoscyamine) consists of a basic nucleus called 

 tropine, which is, by the way, quite similar to the 

 ecgonine nucleus of cocaine, united to a radicle of 

 tropic acid. And this same chemist may assert 

 that the formula of hyoscine is C 17 H 21 NO 4 (some- 

 times stated C 17 H 21 O 4 N) because it is identical with 

 scopolamine. But, lo and behold, that is the for- 

 mula given for cocaine! So where are we? 



Now jump over to the synthetic side and we 

 find nearest cocaine is novocaine (CH 2 (C 6 H 4 NH 2 - 

 COO). CH 2 [N(C 2 H 5 )2]HC1), or simplified to C 13 H 20 - 

 O 2 N 2 HC1. This is the way it is all along the line. 

 I predict that ultimately we will find out the same 

 difficulty inheres in natural and synthetic salicylic 

 acids and their formulae. 



Furthermore, the pharmacology of salicylic acid 

 does not at all account for its action in acute rheu- 



