DIGITALINE-LIKE SUBSTANCES. 179 



ether, but could be extracted with amylic alcohol. It 

 reduces iodic acid, but iu its other reactious, as well as in 

 its physiological properties, it bore no resemblance to 

 morphine. In frogs it arrested the heart in systole, which 

 is said never to happen in poisoning with morphine. It 

 failed to give both the ferric chloride and the Pellagri 

 tests for morphine. 



In the same body there was found a substance which 

 was. extracted from alkaline solutions with ether, and which 

 gave, with hydrochloric acid and a few drops of sulphuric 

 acid, on the application of heat, a reddish residue similar 

 to that obtained by the same reagents with codeine, but in 

 its other reactions it did not resemble this alkaloid. 



Atropine-like Substances. — Many investigators liave 

 found products of putrefaction which in their mydriatic 

 properties resemble atropine and hyoscyamine. To this 

 class belongs the substance observed by Zuelzer and Son- 

 NENSCHEIN. It was removed from alkaline solutions by 

 ether, and formed microscopic crystals, an aqueous solution 

 of which, when applied to the conjunctiva, produced a 

 mydriatic effect, and, when administered internally, in- 

 creased the action of the heart and arrested the movements 

 of the intestines. Moreover, with certain alkaloidal re- 

 agents, such as platinum chloride, it resembled atropine. 

 But when heated with sulphuric acid and oxidizing agents 

 it did not give the odor of blossoms (-Reuss's test). How- 

 ever, Selmi found ptomatropines which with sulphuric 

 acid and oxidizing agents did give the blossom odor as dis- 

 tinctly as the vegetable atropine. These putrefactive bases 

 also developed this odor spontaneously after standing for 

 two or three days, and this does not happen with atropine. 

 The odor was produced with the ptomatropines by nitric 

 and sulphuric acids, both in the cold and on the applica- 

 tion of heat, while these acids in the cold do not produce 

 the odor with atropine. 



DiGiTALiNE-LiKE SuBSTANCES. — Elsewhere we have 

 referred to the discovery of a ptomaine belonging to this 



