CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION. 157 



STEYCHNIA. 



It is well known that strychnia acts on the living economy in a distinctly 

 defined and characteristic manner, and that it is one of the most active of poisons. 

 When administered subcivtaneously, doses varying from one-twentieth to one- 

 fiftieth of a grain rapidly produce in rabbits the most violent tetanic convulsions, 

 and in a few minutes kill the animal. Few poisons have been more carefully 

 studied, and it is now almost undoubtedly established that the phenomena pro- 

 duced by strychnia are due to a localisation of its action on the spinal cord. 



Iodide of methyl- strychnium. — Strychnia (C 21 H 22 N 2 2 ) is a mono-acid nitrile 

 base, that is, it contains one atom of nitrogen united by three bonds to carbon ; 

 the structure of the radical or radicals (C 21 H 22 N0 2 ) w is unknown. How first 

 demonstrated that strychnia is a nitrile base by subjecting it to the action of 

 iodide of ethyl, and described, in a paper read before this Society,* the ethyl- 

 strychnium and amyl-strychnium compounds. Stahlschmidt subsequently pre- 

 pared and described the compounds of methyl-strychnium. f We prepared the 

 iodide of methyl-strychnium by Stahlschmidt's method. Strychnia, in fine 

 powder, was treated, in a flask, with excess of pure iodide of methyl ; \ the 

 flask was allowed to stand in the cold for some hours, then heated in the water- 

 bath, the excess of iodide of methyl distilled off, and the iodide of methyl- 

 strychnium dissolved in boiling water, filtered, and recrystallised. 



Iodide of methyl-strychnium (C 21 H 22 N 2 2 CH 3 I) crystallises in brilliant white 

 scales, tastes distinctly bitter, though not so strongly or persistently so as 

 strychnia, and when treated with strong sulphuric acid and peroxide of man- 

 ganese, or bichromate of potash, it gives the colour reaction of strychnia, some- 

 what obscured by the presence of free iodine. It dissolves in 133 parts of water 

 at 37° C, and in 385 parts of water at 9° C. 



Stahlschmidt has published a statement to the effect that the methyl- 

 strychnium compounds are inert. As the sequel will show, we do not confirm 

 this assertion ; but it is proper to admit that our investigation arose principally 

 from it. 



We first examined the effects of this substance by subcutaneous administra- 

 tion. For this purpose, it was reduced to the form of very fine powder, suspended 

 and dissolved in warm distilled water, and injected into a previously formed 



* Transactions, vol. xxi. p. 32 (1854). 



f Poggendorff's Annalen, vol. cviii. p. 513 (1859). 



J As iodide of methyl prepared directly from pyroxylic spirit is apt to become acid, it is 

 advisable, if such impure iodide of methyl be used, to add a small quantity of an alkali (such as carbonate 

 of potash), in order to prevent any of the strychnia being converted into a salt, and thus remaining 

 unacted on by the iodide of methyl. 



