ON SOME VEGETABLE ALKALOIDS. 43 



had not, it is true, the rich red-purple afforded in former instances, but in all other 

 characters was quite the same. 



The mother liquor of the grains, when distilled to a syrup, and, after the addi- 

 tion of some water, finally evaporated to dryness, left a red and green resinous 

 residue, which dissolved incompletely in hot water ; the aqueous solution again 

 left a resin, only partially soluble, on evaporation ; there exists in this solution a 

 base — partially, at least — precipitable by ammonia, as an iodine compound. It is 

 possible this secondary product may somewhat affect the characters of the iodide 

 of ethylostrychnine, which, I think, is certainly formed, as might have been ex- 

 pected. 



Action of Chloride of Amy I upon Strychnine. 



Chloride of Amylostryclmine. — Strychnine, placed in contact with chloride of 

 amyl, is found to undergo, very slowly, a change quite analogous to that with 

 iodide of ethyl under the same circumstances. About eighty grains of the finely 

 powdered alkaloid being sealed up in a strong tube with two fluid drachms of 

 chloride of amyl, and some ten of absolute alcohol, the vessel was placed in boil- 

 ing water, and retained at the same temperature for a long time. Complete solu- 

 tion took place in about fifty hours, and the heat was continued nearly forty- 

 eight hours longer. The rather oily liquid deposited nothing on cooling, and left, 

 on distillation to a syrup, a thick mass which finally dried up to a crystalline re- 

 sidue. This proved to be the chlorine salt of a base generally analogous to the 

 ethyl product ; it was very soluble in hot water, and crystallizable from a very 

 strong boiling solution on cooling, or a more dilute one by evaporation, in fine 

 colourless prisms. 



I must mention that, in the first place, the whole of the product was dissolved 

 in hot water, and the fluid evaporated to crystallization ; the resulting crystals 

 have their composition represented in analysis I. below, and must have contained 

 any strychnine salt, or a great part of it, had any been originally present, as this 

 is less soluble than the new one. 



The entire mother liquor of these crystals was super-saturated by ammonia, 

 no precipitate appeared for some time ; on stirring, however, a certain quantity of 

 a crystalline deposit fell, which presented the characters of strychnine. The 

 ammoniacal fluid was suffered to stand two hours or so, and then filtered and eva- 

 porated to dryness at 212°. The residue was found to be completely soluble in 

 hot water, or left but a little insoluble strychnine, and was made to crystallize like 

 the first product. These are the crystals employed in analysis II., and could con- 

 tain no strychnine. 



The identity of the analytical results furnished by these two salts, and the ap- 

 pearance of the strychnine, caused me to make direct experiments with ammonia, 

 to be described presently ; in the meantime, the analyses of the salts, obtained as 



VOL. XXI. PART I. M 



