122 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[August 13, 1870. 
or to Continental (Swiss) aconite tubers, for making 
aconitine. Where then does pseudaconitine occur ? 
Bikli tubers appear to be collected from several 
Himalayan species, especially from Aconitum ferox, 
Wallich, but A. Napellus also occurs in the Hima¬ 
layas.* The specimens of Bikli I had the oppor¬ 
tunity of examining are not, however, the tubers of 
the latter species, the appearance of which is ex¬ 
tremely characteristic, the tubers being always 
formed in pairs, each pair united by a short branch- 
let. All the eastern tubers, which I have seen, are 
single, and mostly considerably larger than those of 
A. Napellus, but simpler, and devoid of rootlets. Their 
-appearance is so uniform that I should not feel en¬ 
titled to attribute them to several mother-plants. 
Whether there are Himalayan aconites containing 
pseudaconitine instead of aconitine is a question, to 
the solution of which I am sorry I cannot contribute. 
Some other alkaloids have been pointed out by 
Hiibsclimann as existing in aconite.f In Aconitum 
Napellus he found napelline, differing from aconitine 
by its solubility in ammonia, and insolubility in 
■ether. The rhizomes of A. Lycoctonum, L., the 
yellow-flowered Aconite, yielded lycoctonine and aco- 
lyctine; the latter, however, finally proved to agree, 
probably, with napelline. Again, Messrs. Smith, of 
Edinburgh, in 1863, obtained from tubers of Napellus, 
aconelline which substance is now thought to be none 
other than narcotine. No subsequent observer has 
met with it in aconite.]: Now is the pseudaconitine 
a -peculiar principle, or does it agree, as has been 
suggested, with any one among the alkaloids I 
have named ? As to napelline, § its properties, as 
given by its discoverer, prove at once that it is 
quite different from pseudaconitine. If aconelline 
agrees with narcotine, the well-known characters of 
this latter substance do not allow us to suppose it in 
any degree similar to, still less identical with pseud¬ 
aconitine. Lastly, lycoctonine having never been 
carefully examined, I felt obliged to do so, all the 
more as the late Hiibschmann had himself furnished 
me with it in a state of perfect purity. 
Lycoctonine consists of white, needle-shaped crys¬ 
tals, not melting (like aconitine) in boiling water, 
but only at some degrees above. On cooling, it does 
not resume its crystalline form until it is moistened 
with water, when the amorphous mass is quickly 
transformed into tufted crystals. By melting, lycoc¬ 
tonine loses no water, nor does it combine with 
water by the act of re-crystallization. Lycoctonine 
readily dissolves in chloroform, which, after evapo¬ 
ration, leaves behind an amorphous varnish, which 
again, on moistening with water, becomes very 
strikingly crystalline. Sulphide of carbon, ether, 
alcohol, the fat and volatile oils, amylic alcohol, pe¬ 
troleum spirit, largely dissolve lycoctonine. Of boil¬ 
ing water, COO parts dissolve 1 part of lycoctonine. 
The solution has an alkaline reaction and bitter 
taste; it produces fine yellow crystals if bromine 
water is added. This takes place even if the solu¬ 
tion contains but 1 part of lycoctonine in 30,000 
water. Lycoctonine is also precipitated by iodohy- 
drargyrate of potassium, the compound crystal- 
* Hooker and Thomson, ‘Flora Indica,’ i. (1855) 3, 64. 
t For further particulars, see my original paper in the 
* Archiv der Pharmacie.’ 
X Pharm. Journ. Till. (1866) 123. 
§ The existence of napelline has been doubted by some 
authors, but has been always decidedly maintained by 
Hiibschmann. 
lizing after some hours. One part of lycoctonine in 
20,000 water yields these crystals after twelve hours. 
The analogous mercuric compound of aconitine al¬ 
ways remains uncrystallized. As to physiological 
effects, lycoctonine is far less poisonous than aconi¬ 
tine. 
Lycoctonine is, therefore, a well-defined, peculiar 
alkaloid, differing from aconitine as well as from 
pseudaconitine. I hope soon to determine its com¬ 
position. 
The results of the researches here detailed may 
be summed up as follows:— 
1. Aconitine is contained in the blue-flower¬ 
ing European and Himalayan species of Aconi¬ 
tum, especially in A. Napellus. 
2. Aconitine is particularly characterized by 
the following properties :—It is anhydrous, be¬ 
comes soft in boiling water, although it only 
melts near 120° C. The aqueous solution has a 
bitter taste, free from acridity ; it is not precipi¬ 
tated by bichloride of platinum, but produces an 
uncrystallizable precipitate with iodohydrargy- 
rate of potassium. It dissolves very readily in 
ether, chloroform, and alcohol, and forms a 
monoclilorhydrate, C 30 H 47 N 0 7 +H Cl. The ni¬ 
trate can be obtained in well-developed micro¬ 
scopic crystals. Aconitine imparts a violet 
colour to hot phosphoric acid which has been 
concentrated as much as possible in the water- 
bath. 
3. All aconitine from England which I exa¬ 
mined agrees essentially with the German (or 
Swiss) aconitine. 
4. There exists, however, a base entirely dis¬ 
tinct from aconitine, of uncertain origin, but 
perhaps derived from the aconite tubers {bikli) 
of Nepal and other alpine regions of India. It 
may be distinguished as pseudaconitine. 
5. Pseudaconitine has a burning, not a bitter 
taste. It is insoluble in water, less soluble in 
ether, chloroform, and alcohol, but freely crys- 
tallizable from these solutions. It is not co¬ 
loured by hot concentrated phosphoric acid. 
C. Napelline differs both from aconitine and 
pseudaconitine. 
7. So also does lycoctonine, an alkaloid pecu¬ 
liar (so far as we know) to the yellow-flowered 
Aconite (.Aconitum Lycoctonum, L.). Its bro¬ 
mine compound crystallizes from a dilute aque¬ 
ous solution, but upon drying is decomposed. 
ACETIC FERMENTATION. 
BY BARON VON LIEBIG. 
In the investigation of physiological or other phe¬ 
nomena where there are both chemical and physio¬ 
logical processes concerned, as in the case of fermen¬ 
tation, the true method of research requires that the 
chemical and physical laws of both should be as¬ 
certained ; indeed the utmost we can expect is to 
arrive at a knowledge of these laws. The explana¬ 
tion of a physiological phenomenon consists, there¬ 
fore, in ascertaining first what physical or chemical 
laws it is subject to, and it is the object of further in¬ 
vestigation to determine the extent to which they 
are concerned. 
From this point of view I have endeavoured to 
refer the chemical process of fermentation to a 
chemico-physical cause, by directing attention to the 
