DR. A. MATTHIESSEN AND MR. C. R. A. WRIGHT ON THE 
668 
in view, the reaction must be stopped long before the whole of the narcotine has been 
decomposed ; meconin, on the contrary, undergoes no change under these circumstances. 
As has been previously observed, when crystallized narcotine is heated in sealed tubes 
together with water, it gradually disappears, yielding a slightly coloured solution ; on 
repeating this experiment, an oily liquid sinking to the bottom of the tube was formed, 
and on continuing the heat, this gradually disappeared. This liquid, when examined, 
appeared to be simply a solution of unaltered narcotine in the melted meconin : no 
permanent gas was formed when the temperature did not rise above 160° C., but the 
smell of methylamine was always perceptible, and the more so the longer the time of 
heating ; this was found to be due to the partial decomposition of the cotarnine. On 
opening a tube where all the narcotine had disappeared, the yellow liquid was found to 
be strongly alkaline, and on being acidified with hydrochloric acid, deposited crystals of 
meconin on cooling after evaporation. 
The meconin from a series of tubes, when purified by successive recrystallizations, pre- 
sented all the physical characters of ordinary meconin, viz. melting under boiling water, 
solubility in hot water, alcohol, and ether, and comparative insolubility in cold water 
and dilute acids and alkalies, and yielded the following results on analysis, after complete 
desiccation at 100° : — 
0-4085* grm. gave 0-9180 carbonic acid and 0-1900 water. 
Calculated. 
A 
Found. 
61-29 
Cio . . . 
. "l20 
61-85 
H 10 . . . 
. 10 
5-15 
5-16 
0 4 . . . 
. 64 
33-00 
— 
^io H 10 0 4 . 
. 194 
100-00 
To obtain the cotarnine, the acidulated liquors from which the meconin had been 
obtained by crystallization, or extraction with ether, were supersaturated with ammonia, 
which threw down the unaltered narcotine and tarry matter, and acetate of lead was 
added ; the filtrate from the dense precipitate of hydrated oxide and tarry matters thus 
produced was concentrated by evaporation over sulphuric acid after addition of a con- 
siderable quantity of caustic potash ; cotarnine was thus gradually precipitated, and was 
purified by solution in hydrochloric acid and reprecipitation by excess of caustic potash ; 
after washing until the filtrate was no longer alkaline, it was converted into platinum- 
salt, well washed with alcohol and ether, and dried over sulphuric acid. 
0-4210 grm. of this salt, ignited, left 0-0965 grm. of platinum. 
Calculated. Found. 
Av 
Narcotine Cotarnine 
(C 22 H 23 NO t ) 2 2HC1, PtCl 4 . (C 12 H I3 N0 3 ) 2 2HC1, PtCl 4 . 
Platinum per cent. . . . 16-0 23-2 £2-9 
Owing to its easy decomposition, the quantity of cotarnine found was much less than 
* All combustions given in this paper were made with oxide of copper and oxygen. 
