106 REPORT— 1878. 



chloride, and was apparently identical with the Veratrine of Couerhe. The 

 third neither crystallised nor yielded crystalline salts, but was sharply dis- 

 tinguished by its sparing solubility in ether. Nothing agreeing in properties 

 with the ' Sabadilline ' of Couerbe and of Weigelin could be found either in 

 the alkaloids extracted from the seeds, in a quantity of tbe alkaloidal mix- 

 ture sold commercially as " Veratria," or, finally, in a substance purchased 

 from Messrs. Burgoyne and Burbidges (Kablbaum's agents) as being Saba- 

 dilline itself ! This last substance consisted entirely of the third base 

 above mentioned, the only point of similarity between it and ' Sabadilline ' 

 being very sparing solubility in ether. 



Each one of the three bases was saponified by alcoholic soda, the first 

 and third apparently forming the same acid product which has been 

 identified with the Methylcrotonic Acid of Frankland and Duppa, and 

 with the Gevadic Acid of Pelletier and Caventou ; the second bass yielded, 

 by similar treatment, Bimetlujlprotccateclmic Acid, identical with that 

 similarly obtained from pseudaconitine, and, as Korner has shown, 

 identical with that isolated by Merck from V. Sahadilla seeds, and 

 termed by him Veratric Acid. From these circumstances we propose 

 to assign to the three bases respectively the following names. The for- 

 mula? attached are those derived from our own analyses ; in the case of 

 the first base our numbers are practically identical with those of Merck 

 and of Schmidt and Koppen, Merck's nitrogen determination excepted. 



(1 .) Cevadine, C 32 H 49 NO s ; the " Veratrine " of Merck. We term this 

 Cevadine because the prior right to the name, "Veratrine," rests with 

 Couerbe's base (vide infra), and because it forms Cevadic acid on saponi- 

 fication, the reaction being 



C 32 H 49 N0 9 + H 2 = C 5 H 8 2 + C 2 .H,,XO g . 



(2.) Veratrine, C 37 H 53 NO n ; the 'Veratrine' of Couerbe. We term 

 this Veratrine because, as just stated, the prior right to the name belongs 

 to it, and because it forms Veratric acid on saponification ; the reaction 

 being 



C 37 H 53 NO„ + H 2 0= C 9 H 10 O 4 + C 28 H 45 N0 8 . 



(3.) CevadiUine, C 34 H 53 N0 8 . We term this Cevadilline because it 

 exhibits a certain amount of similarity to the " Sabadilline " described by 

 Weigelin, and because it appears to form Cevadic acid on saponification. 



The basic complementary products formed by saponification from these 

 three bases we propose to term respectively Gevuie, Verine, and Cevilline. 

 Cevine and Verine are non-crystalline, and much resemble one another. 



When Cevadic acid is heated with fusing potash, hydrogen is evolved, 

 and acetic and propionic acids formed. As Cevadic acid melts at 64°-65°, 

 its identity with the Methylcrotonic acid of Frankland and Duppa is 

 thereby demonstrated, this acid having been found to melt at 62° (F. and 

 D.) ; whilst Angelic acid, which also forms acetic and propionic acids by 

 fusion with potash, melts at 45°. 



When Cevadine is heated to 100° with excess of benzoic anhydride, it 

 forms a benzoylated derivative, Benzoyl Cevadine, in virtue of the reaction 



C 32 H 49 N0 9 + (C 7 H 5 0) 2 = C 7 H 6 2 + C 32 H 48 (C 7 H 5 0)N0 9 . 



It results from these experiments that the following " structural " for- 

 mula? may be assigned, since Methylcrotonic acid is indicated by CH 4 = 

 C(CH 3 ) -CO. OH:— 



