ON SOME VEGETABLE ALKALOIDS. 47 



week the tube was opened, but I could gain nothing decisive as to the evident de- 

 composition which had taken place, and which seems of a more complex nature 

 than had been anticipated. 



The brown deposit was for the most part soluble in hydrochloric acid, but 

 did not present the characters of pure strychnine when reprecipitated by ammonia. 

 Its mother liquor, from the tube, was evaporated to dryness at 212° to expel the 

 excess of ammonia, and it left a residue which had a most remarkable resemblance 

 to common glue in appearance and odour : this contained the chlorine salt of some 

 base, and when dissolved in water, and decomposed by nitrate of silver in ex- 

 cess, the fluid, filtered from the chloride of silver, gave in a few minutes a brilliant 

 metallic mirror, but no crystalline salt. 



These decompositions, at both temperatures, seem worthy of study. I may 

 mention that chloride of ethylostrychnine, in contact with aqueous ammonia in 

 the cold, also yields, after the lapse of some days, a small deposit of most minute 

 crystals. 



I have not at present experimented further with these substances, but hope to 

 be able to render their history more complete, and, if possible, to clear up some 

 points touched upon in this paper, by studying their especial products of decomposi- 

 tion in these cases. I have the intention also of submitting some of the other alka- 

 loids, yet unexamined, to a similar investigation. 



With regard to what has been actually brought forward in the present commu- 

 nication, I would draw the following inferences ; — 



That the new basic products, ethylo and amylo-strychnine are analogous to the 

 compound ammonium bases of Hofmann, and quite distinct from the natural 

 fixed alkaloids. In their resemblance to metallic oxides, and the combinations 

 they form with water and acids, they shew, in common with these, general family 

 features, while special distinctions exist as individual characteristics, and are to 

 be paralleled in many saline compounds. 



That the already complex molecule in the vegetable alkaloids is rendered more 

 susceptible of change by association with additional hydrocarbons. 



That as regards the constitution of strychnine, this alkaloid appears to be 

 made up of a complicated molecule, in which the one atom of nitrogen, as in am- 

 monia, etc., is associated with a nitrogenous aggregate of elements, whose function 

 is that of three atoms of hydrogen, and whose nitrogen is in a distinct form of com- 

 bination, as yet undetermined, from that of the first, generic atom. The expres- 

 sion of such a composition may be attempted thus : — 



C 42 H 22 N 2 4 =) C 42 H 22 N 4 = { H \ +N 



Strychnine. 

 VOL. I. PART I. N 



