t 



TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 71 



acid. As 3'et this body has not been obtained in sufficient quantity and sufficiently 

 pure for analysis ; the fact that concenti-ated warm sulphuric acid does not char it, 

 ut onlj' dissolves it, suggests some constitutional similai-ity to indigo. 

 Tribrom-hydrocotarnine hydrobromide breaks up, on heating to 180-200'^, in 

 accordance with the reaction, 



C1JI12 Bra NO3, HBr = CH3 Br+HBr+C,i H, Br ISO3, HBr, 



methyl bromide and hydrobromic acid being evolved and the hydrobromide of a 

 new base being left. After due purification the free base is obtained from 80 per 

 cent, alcohol in bright oranr/e crystals containing C,, HgBrNO,, yH^O, the water 

 of crystallization being lost at 100° and a brilliant crimson anhydrous base being 

 left. This crimson mass is a delicate test for the presence of moisture in nearly 

 absolute alcohol ; when crystallized from such containing only a minute trace of 

 moisture, oranr/e hydrated crystals are thrown down on cooling, whilst criinson 

 anhydrous crystals are formed when -very carefidly dehydrated alcohol is employed : 

 it may be noted that long standing over and distillation from a large bulk of quicklime 

 does not sufficiently dehydrate ordinary 90 per cent, spirit to give crimson crystals 

 by this test. 



The salts of this base readily crystallize ; the hydrochloride and hydrobromide 

 are of a straw-yellow colour and sparingly soluble in cold water ; on adding sodium 

 carbonate to the warm only slightly yellow aqueous solution, bright orange crystals 

 of the free base separate rapidly on stirring. 



The bromine in this base is apparently incapable of elimination by nascent hydro- 

 gen ; it is proposed to designate it Jromo^rt/Towtwe, " tarconine " (anagram of nar- 

 cotine and ot cotarnine) being the (as yet hypothetical) non-brominated base 

 Cji Hj NO3, difleriug from cotamiue (Cj^ Hj3 NO3) by the elements of marsh-gas. 



On the AVcaloids of the Aconites. By C. E. Alder Weight, D.Sc. 



The results communicated to the Association last year, together with those 

 obtained by Duquesnel, seem to point to the inference that when a mineral acid is 

 used to acidify the alcohol used in the extraction of alkaloids from aconite roots, 

 alteration of the base or bases originally present takes place to a greater or less 

 extent, owing to the influence of the heat employed to evaporate the alcoholic 

 extract ; whereas if tartai-ic acid be used, and the extract be evaporated at as low a 

 temperature as possible, as in the experiments of Duquesnel, much less alteration 

 takes place and a considerable amount of abase crystallizable from ether is obtained. 



Two cwt. of Aconiimn napellus were worked up by this latter process for the 

 purpose of examining more closely the character of the crystals thus obtained ; the 

 extract, evaporated gently to a small bulk, was treated with water and filtered from 

 precipitated resin ; the aqueous filtrate then yielded a semicrystalline precipitate 

 when treated with potassium carbonate in slight excess. This precipitate was 

 fractionally crystallized from ether and other solvents, and finally split up into a 

 large number effractions ; no evidence, however, could be obtained of the presence 

 of more than one crystalline base ; all the fractions, when sufficiently purified from 

 a small quantity of an obstinately adherent non-crystalline base of lower molecular 

 weight, gave identical numbers agreeing mth the formula C33 H^3 NOj„, the gold 

 salt being indicated by C33 Hj,;, NOj^ HCl, AuClg. 



This crystallized base, to which it is proposed in future to restrict the term 

 aconitine, is eminently active physiologically, and agrees closely in all its properties 

 with the " crystallized aconitine " of Duquesnel obtained by the same process, the 

 different formula arrived at by Duquesnel (viz. Cj^H^o NO,,) being apparentl}'^ 

 due either to impurity in the substance examined or to analytical imperfections. 



The base, crystallizable from ether, obtained in small quantities from A. napellus 

 by extraction with alcoholic hydrochloric acid, as described in the Brit. Assoc. Rep. 

 1875, p. 38, gave last year numbers from which the C33 II,, NO,,, or one closely 

 similar, was deduced : after further purification, however, this substance was found 

 to be perfectly identical with the aconitine above described, giving numbers repre- 

 sented by C33 H„NO„. 



