712 DBS CRUM BROWN AND FRASER ON THE CONNECTION BETWEEN 



CONIA. 



This substance is obtained from Conium maculalum (hemlock), and has been 

 shown by Von Planta and Kekule* to be a variable mixture of two bases, to 

 which they give the names of " Conia" and " Methyl-conia." These bases re- 

 semble one another very closely in physical properties. Their composition is 

 represented by the formulae C 8 H 15 N and C 9 H 17 N. The chemists above named 

 investigated very completely the action of iodide of ethyl on conia, and proved 

 that " conia" (or, as it is called in the present paper, normal conia) is an imide 

 base, and that "methyl-conia" is a nitrile base. 



The substances examined in the present paper are : — 



1st, Conia — samples of which were obtained from Messrs Duncan & Flcckhart, 

 Macfarlan & Co., and Morson. We are also indebted to Dr Christison for the 

 opportunity of examining the action of a specimen of conia, which he prepared 

 in 1835. 



2 d, Methyl-conia — prepared from hydriodate of methyl-conia, produced by the 

 union of iodide of methyl and normal conia. Our experiments were made with 

 the hydrochl orate of this substance. 



3d, Iodide of dimethyl-coniiim — obtained by the union of iodide of methyl and 

 methyl-conia contained in conia, as obtained from the plant. 



Conia. — The careful and elaborate investigations of Christison,| Schroff, \ 

 Von Praag,§ Kolliker, || and Guttmann,^[ have rendered important service to 

 our knowledge of the effects and mode of action of conia. From the results obtained 

 by these authors, it is now certainly established that this alkaloid is a poison of 

 great activity, and that it produces marked paralytic and less obvious spasmodic 

 symptoms. The former symptoms have been shown to depend principally on an 

 action on the peripheral terminations of the motor nerves ; but the causation of 

 the latter is as yet unknown. It has also been ascertained, chiefly by the investi- 

 gations of Kolliker and Guttmann, that conia does not directly iunueuce the 

 functions of the sensory nerves, striped muscles, or heart. 



In a general manner, our experiments confirm the above results ; but they 

 also prove that considerable differences occur both in the nature of the action and 

 in the lethal activity of various samples of conia. In these respects, we observed 

 the most marked differences between the conia prepared by Dr Christison and 



* Annalen der Chemie und Pharraacie, bd. lxxxix. 1854, p. 129. 

 f Transactions Roy. Soo. of Edinburgh, vol. xiii. 1837, pp. 398-415. 



\ Wochenblatt der Gesellschaft der Aerzte zu Wien, 185G ; and Lehrbuch der Pharmacologic, 

 1869, p. 531. 



§ Journ. f. Pharm, i. 44. 



|| Virchow's Archiv. bd. x. 1856, p. 238. 



\ Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift, 1866, pp. 45, 55, 71, 81. 



