461 
of Edinburgh , Session 1868-69. 
The following Gentlemen were elected Fellows of the Society : — 
Isaac Anderson-Henry, Esq. 
George Elder, Esq. 
Sir Charles A. Hartley, C.E. 
David MacGibbon, Esq. 
Rev. Thomas Melville Raven, M.A. 
Alexander Howe, Esq. 
Viscount Walden. 
Professor Alexander Dickson. 
Monday , 18 th January 1869. 
Professor KELLAND, Vice-President, in the Chair. 
The following Communications were read : — 
1. On the Connection between Chemical Constitution and 
Physiological Action. 
On the Physiological Action of the Salts of the Ammonium 
Bases derived from Atropia and Conia. By Dr A. Crum 
Brown and Dr Thomas R. Fraser. 
Atropia .— Atropia is a nitrile base. All we know of its consti- 
tution is, that by the action of strong acids and bases it is decom- 
posed, in accordance with the equation.* 
c 17 h 23 no 3 + h 2 o = c 9 h 10 o 3 + c 8 h 15 no 
Atropia. Water. Tropic Acid. Tropia. 
So that atropia may be considered as tropia, in which one atom of 
hydrogen has been replaced by tropyl, the radical of tropic acid. 
Tropic acid belongs to the aromatic series, and is considered by 
Kraut to be phenylsarcolactic acid — HO * CH 2 - CH(C h H 5 )C00H. 
Of the constitution of tropia we know nothing whatever, except 
that it is a nitrile base. 
Iodide of methyl- atr opium . — Iodide of methyl acts very readily 
on atropia, a good deal of heat is produced, and after the reaction 
is over, the iodide of methyl-atropium remains as a white mass. 
From this the excess of iodide of methyl was removed by a current 
of air, and the dry salt dissolved in water, filtered, and evaporated 
at a temperature not exceeding 40° C. The concentrated solution 
thus obtained, on cooling, deposits the salt in prismatic crystals, 
apparently belonging to the monoclinic system ; sometimes part of 
* Kraut. — Annalen der Ch. u. Ph., cxxviii. 280, cxxxiii. 87, cxlviii. 238. 
Lossen. — lb., cxxxi. 43, cxxxviii. 230. 
VOL. VI. 
3 0 
