Frankforter : the alkaloids of veratrum. 1029 



Of the three bases which have already been referred to, each 

 has been known as veratrine. That of Couerbe was amorphous, 

 but gave crystalline salts. That of Merck was crystallizable, 

 but the salts noncrystalline save the gold double salt. The 

 third is perhaps an isomeric form of the second. 



These bases were given the following names for the logical 

 reason which follows: 



(a) Veratrine, because the prior right to the name rests 

 with this base and because it forms veratric acid by saponi- 

 fication. 



(h) Cevadine, because it forms cevadic acid and because it 

 is not identical with the true veratrine. 



(c) Cevadalline, because it appears to form cevadic acid and 

 because in insolubility in ether it corresponds with the 

 "sabadilleme" of Weigelin and Dragendorff, which was not ob- 

 served by them. The fact that other experimenters found that 

 the greater part of the alkaloid was crystallizable, was satisfac- 

 torily explained by the fact that a trace of a noncrystalline 

 substance interfered with the crystallizing powers of the base. 



The method of extraction as given by Wright and Luff, 

 differed widely from those which had hitherto been used. 

 The omission of alkalies owing to the great danger of saponi- 

 fication was of the most importance as partial saponification 

 and therefore considerable loss must have occurred in all of 

 the previous methods, even in the use of ammonia. The 

 method was briefly as follows: The coarsely powdered material 

 was extracted with alcohol acidulated with tartaric acid (1 part 

 of acid to 100 parts of the material) evaporated to a small 

 bulk and the resin removed 'by the addition of water. The 

 alkaloids were then extracted by repeatedly shaking with ether, 

 the ether being treated with tartaric acid. The tartaric acid 

 was then neutralized with sodium carbonate and shaken with a 

 large quantity of ether. On evaporating the ethereal solution, a 

 substance remained which refused to crystallize. By treating 

 with benzoline a viscid, honey-like mass remained. A part, how- 

 ever, dissolved and appeared as imperfect crystals on evapora- 

 tion. The crystals were removed and purified by redissolving 

 in hot alcohol. The pure crystals melted at 205° C. and were un- 

 doubtedly identical with Merck's, and Schmidt and Koppen's 

 veratrine. On account of its properties it was called cevadine. 

 It forms cevadic acid by saponification. 



In order to isolate the second base present as much as possi- 

 ble of the cevadine was removed and the insoluble portion 



