•258 MR. G. FOWNES ON THE ARTIFICIAL 



I pass now to a description of the properties of the new salt-base, of its principal 

 salts yet studied, and of the best method of preparation on a considerable scale. 



The substance itself crystallizes from boiling water in fine, soft, white, silky needles, 

 much resembling those of cafeine, quite permanent in the air, and even in the dry 

 vacuum. It has but little taste, although its salts are very bitter; they are far less 

 so however than those of morphia, or of the bark-alkalies. It is inodorous. At a 

 temperature rather below the boiling-point of water it melts to a heavy, nearly co- 

 lourless, oily liquid, which on cooling assumes at first the consistence of a soft resin, 

 but eventually becomes brittle and crystalline. When strongly heated in the air, 

 the new substance inflames, burns with a red and smoky light, and leaves but very 

 little charcoal. It is soluble in about 135 parts of boiling water, but after cooling, 

 scarcely a trace remains dissolved. Alcohol and ether in the cold dissolve it with 

 the utmost facility ; the alcoholic solution deposits, on spontaneous evaporation, ex- 

 ceedingly brilliant silky crystals ; the liquid has a great tendency to creep up the 

 sides of the vessel. The alkaline reaction to test-paper, when dissolved in hot water 

 or alcohol, is exceedingly strong and well-marked. Dilute acids dissolve this sub- 

 stance with the utmost ease, becoming thereby completely neutralized, unless em- 

 ployed in excess ; from these combinations the base is precipitated in an unchanged 

 state, by the addition of ammonia or of a fixed alkali. A salt of the new base gives 

 no precipitate with solutions of peroxide of iron, oxide of copper or silver, lime or 

 baryta ; the hydrochlorate forms with Corrosive sublimate, a white, and with chloride 

 of platinum, a bright yellow, double salt. What is rather remarkable, it is not pre- 

 cipitated to any extent by tincture of galls. So powerful are the basic properties of 

 this alkaloid, that when boiled with a solution of sal-ammoniac, it decomposes that 

 salt with evolution of ammonia and formation of a hydrochlorate. 



The salts formed by this curious body are exceedingly numerous, and would in all 

 probability well repay a more extended investigation ; the few yet examined are the 

 following: — 



Hydrochlorate. — This is easily prepared by dissolving the alkaloid in dilute, warm 

 hydrochloric acid, to saturation. The salt, which is perfectly neutral to test-paper, 

 forms tufts of fine, silky, acicular crystals, like those of hydrochlorate of morphia. 

 It is very soluble in pure water, but far less so in an excess of hydrochloric acid. 

 The crystals retain their brilliancy when dried in vacuo over sulphuric acid. An ana- 

 lysis of this salt gave the following results : — 



(Carbon and hydrogen.) (1.) 



Salt employed 5-855 grs. 



Carbonic acid produced . . 12* grs. 



Water produced .... 2*49 grs. 



(^•> 

 Carbon. . . . 55-89 



Hydrogen. . . 4-72 



