NOTES ON A COMMERCIAL SAMPLE OF SULPHATE OF QUININE. 187 
tlie use of shippers and surgeons, and, as an inducement to the purchaser, is 
offered at a low price. In external appearance it differs much from a pure 
article, such as Howard’s or Pelletier's. It is not so distinctly crystallized, 
and is more silky. It is much more soluble in diluted sulphuric acid than 
the genuine salt. It is not discoloured by strong nitric or sulphuric acids, 
showing the absence of phloridzine or salicine. 
An aqueous solution of chlorine and ammonia failed to give the green tinge 
so characteristic of quinine. Nitrate of silver and nitric acid gave a white 
curdy precipitate of chloride of silver. Chloride of barium and hydrochloric 
acid also gave a dense precipitate of sulphate. The next test applied was 
that of Dr. Herapath. 
Ten grains of the suspected salt, treated in the usual way, only afforded one 
or two very minute crystals of iodosulphate,—a quantity too small to be 
weighed. I then tried the sulphocyanide test described by me at our last 
year’s meeting. The resulting precipitate, under a quarter-inch lens, showed 
abundance of large massive crystals of sulphocyanide of cinchonine inter¬ 
spersed with the well-known tufts of sulphocyanide of quinidine, but none of 
the long acicular crystals of the quinine salt. When dissolved in water, to 
the extent of a scruple to the ounce, hardly any fluorescence was perceptible 
to the naked eye in daylight. Even the spark of a powerful Euhmkorffs 
coil gave only a faint fluorescent light, which is so intense and beautiful in 
a solution of quinine, even when containing only the one-fourth of a grain 
per cent. My modification of Liebig’s test was most decisive, and corrobo¬ 
rated the above results in the most marked manner. 
I cannot proceed without passing a vote of censure against the British 
Pharmacopoeia text. The amount of water is very prejudicial to its useful¬ 
ness, nor is there any rule given for the quantity of ammonia to be used, and 
the student will find to his vexation that, as the quantity of ammonia used 
differs, so will the amount of precipitate vary also. Another thing worthy of 
remark is, that the presence of cinchonine modifies and almost entirely masks 
the iodine and sulphocyanide tests for quinine. I could not get the hera- 
pathites to crystallize, or the sulphocyanides to deposit, till I had separated 
the quinine by ether. If I had not therefore been aware of this, I should 
have put down this specimen of quinine to have had none at all in it of the 
true alkaloid. 
The best use to make of the Pharmacopoeia method of testing is to correct 
any previous observation by a synthetical examination, for either of or any ♦ 
mixture or the three alkaloids, when treated exactly alike, show a marked 
distinction in their general appearance when too much ammonia is not em¬ 
ployed. A quantitative analysis gave 41-3 per cent, of cinchonine, which 
would be equivalent to 36"31 of the sulphate, the remainder being quinidine 
and quinine,—the latter forming about ten per cent, of the whole, and pro¬ 
bably a mixture of hydrochlorates and sulphates. 
From the foregoing experiments it is evident that the so-called sulphate of 
quinine is nothing of the kind, but a mixture of cinchonine and quinidine. 
with only a tenth of quinine. In short, it is truly what the label ironically 
states, a “ fabrique speciale,” which it is the duty of the adulteration com¬ 
mittee to expose, and certainly not proper for a druggist to sell as pure sul¬ 
phate of quinine. On the other hand, it is very pleasing to find that such an 
article could not readily be procured from our well-known wholesale London 
houses. It proves the truth of what I affirmed at Lath, that it is the drug¬ 
gist’s own fault if he does not get a genuine article. 
Mr. J. Watts also had found that if much quinidine or cinchonine were present the - 
action of sulphocyanide of potassium upon quinine was masked. He had experimented 
o 2 
