nas given in the Pharmaceutical Journal of April 5th, 1879, 
an account of his findings, from which the following is 
extracted : — 
Last year, Dr. Linger having received a very small quantity of 
pituri, handed it, for the purpose of medical examination, to Mr. 
Gerrard. Mr. Gerrard recognised that pituri contained an alkaloid, 
and notwithstanding the small quantity at his disposal he has been 
able to determine some of the properties of this product, to which he 
has given the name “piturine.” Dr. Bancroft having sent to me, 
through Messrs. Christy and Co., of London, a larger supply of 
pituri — about fifty grams — I have been able to take up and complete 
the experiments of Mr. Gerrard. 
The aqueous extract dissolved in water was treated with bicar- 
bonate of potash and ether. The ether was freely alkaline ; agitated 
with water to which dilute sulphuric acid was gradually added, it 
gave up the alkaloid to the aqueous solution. Several treatments 
with ether are necessary to exhaust the aqueous extract. The water, 
containing in solution the sulphate of the alkaloid, was separated and 
treated afresh with the bicarbonate and ether. After three treat- 
ments there was obtained by evaporation of the ether a scarcely 
coloured residue, possessing energetic alkaline properties and pre- 
senting all the reactions of the better defined alkaloids. It gave off 
an irritating odour, especially when heated slightly, and was very 
pungent to the tongue. Upon bringing strong hydrochloric acid close 
to the surface of the liquid, dense fumes were formed. Placed in a 
watch glass upon a water-bath, it volatilized rapidly. It was 
therefore a volatile alkaloid. 
The properties above described raised the inquiry whether the 
alkaloid was not nicotine. Some pure nicotine was therefore pro- 
cured, and various comparative experiments have been made with the 
two substances. 
In order to remove any water which the alkaloid derived from 
pituri might contain, after careful evaporation, it was left during 
forty-eight hours in a vacuum over sulphuric acid. Under these 
conditions nicotine and the alkaloid from pituri gave exactly the same 
result. Only having at my disposal about 15 gram of alkaloid, I was 
unable to take its boiling point. 
Potatory Power. — 0*236 gram dissolved in 10 c.c. of 98° alcohol 
gave with the polarimeter 5*85° with a column of 20 centimetres, 
being for the yellow light a rotatory power of - 123*9°, whilst the 
rotatory power of nicotine is, according to Buignet, - 121*9°. When 
saturated with sulphuric acid the rotatory power of pituri passes to 
the right, as in the case of nicotine. 
Alkalimetrie, Power . — 2 c.c. of the preceding solution were 
saturated with titrated sulphuric acid. The results calculated to 
10 c.c. gave: 1st experiment, 0*07 gram H 2 SO. t ; 2nd experiment, 
0 0725 gram H 2 S0 4 . These figures calculated as for nicotine gave 
0*2312 gram and 0*2396 gram, or a mean of 0*2359 gram, a figure 
practically equal to the amount of alkaloid employed. 
Chloroplatinate . — Dissolved in water and saturated with hydro- 
chloric acid in slight excess, the alkaloid of pituri gave upon addition 
of chloride of platinum exactly the same crystals as those of the 
