292 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS IN CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACY. 
rectified spirit which dissolves only the organic substances. The alcoholic solu¬ 
tion is evaporated to dryness, and the brown mass which remains is treated 
with boiling water, which leaves a resin containing a proportion more or less 
large of free hydrocinchonine. The aqueous solution deposits on cooling an 
abundant crystallization of cinchotenine, which is purified by animal charcoal, 
etc. The mother liquor from this first crystallization containing more cincho¬ 
tenine and the carboxycinchonic acid is precipitated with sulphate of copper, 
which gives, with the cinchotenine, a pale green precipitate. This is rapidly 
separated by filtration and the filtrate boiled, which determines the formation 
of a fine blue precipitate—impure carboxycinchonate of copper. Lastly the 
substance reducing the cupro-potassic tartrate is concentrated in the last 
mother liquor; but its separation cannot be effected with certainty. 
These separations can also be effected by fractional precipitations with chlo¬ 
ride of platinum. 
Hydro cinchonine.— By a series of analyses of the free base and of its chloro- 
platinate, the authors have established the formula of hydrocinchonine. This 
substance differs from cinchonine by containing two more atoms of hydrogen, 
and hence the name assigned to it. 
Hydrocinchonine. C 20 H 26 !N" 3 O 
Cinchonine. C 20 H 24 NT 2 O 
Hydrocinchonine is distinguished from cinchonine by the slowness with which 
it is acted on by permanganate in the cold. The authors are induced by this 
circumstance and by the chemical composition of the body to consider that hy¬ 
drocinchonine exists ready formed in the cinchonine of commerce, and that it is 
not a product of the oxidation. 
They have long suspected that cinchonine may be a mixture, and M. Hlasi- 
wetz has already expressed the same idea, being led to it by the discrepancies 
manifested in analyses of cinchonine by different chemists. The properties of 
cinchonine and hydrocinchonine are so similar that the two bodies cannot be 
separated by the ordinary methods; it is necessary to destroy the cinchonine in 
order to isolate the new base. Nevertheless, it is remarkable that the more hy¬ 
drogenated body should present the greater resistance to an oxidizing agent. 
Hydrocinchonine fuses at 268° C., while cinchonine, under the same conditions, 
melts at 257°. It deviates the plane of polarization less than cinchonine. It is 
insoluble in cold water, but slightly soluble in boiling water, and crystallizing out 
as the solution cools. It exerts an alkaline reaction. A litre of strong alcohol 
dissolves 7’35 grammes at 15°C., but by heat a much larger quantity is taken 
up and deposited again on cooling in small, brilliant needles. It forms well- 
crystallized salts, soluble in water, and of a bitter taste. The neutral hydro¬ 
chlorate crystallizes in long, colourless needles; the nitrate in small, brilliant 
plates. Its chloroplatinate is easily soluble in hydrochloric acid, and forms 
large brilliant crystals, containing C 20 H 26 T7 2 OPtCl 6 H 2 . It contains also one 
molecule of water, which it only loses at 140°. The sulphate of hydrocinchonine 
crystallizes in long, white needles, very soluble, differing in form from sulphate 
of cinchonine, and containing (C 20 H 26 N 2 O) 2 SO 4 H 2 +3H 2 O. The neutral 
oxalate crystallizes in fine silky tufts, very soluble by heat, and containing 
(C 20 H 2 6 W 2 0) 2 C 2 0 4 H 2 . 
Cinchotenine. —This is the most abundant product of oxidation. It con¬ 
tains Ojg Hoo H" 2 0 3 , and is deposited from its boiling aqueous solution in silky 
crystals of a silvery whiteness. It is little soluble in cold water, and sparingly 
dissolved by alcohol even boiling. Cinchotenine is neutral to vegetable colours, 
and is dissolved equally well by acids and by alkalies. Nevertheless it is inso¬ 
luble in concentrated potash. It is completely separated from its barytic solution 
by a current of carbonic acid. It is difficultly attacked by permanganate, even 
