April 29, 1S7L] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
867 
all acids, refusing to unite with, them in any form or pro¬ 
portion. These few facts point very strongly to the 
conclusion that it is neither an alkaloid nor an acid 
principle, being entirely indifferent to the alkalies and 
not reddening litmus paper. The therapeutic properties 
of this substance have not been ascertained.— American 
Journal of Pharmacy. 
THE USE OF LIQUID CAOUTCHOUC AS AN AD¬ 
DITION TO EMP. BELLADONNiE AND OTHER 
PLASTERS. 
BY J. WILLITTS WORTHINGTON. 
The author has treated this subject at some length in 
his inaugural essay before the Philadelphia College of 
Pharmacy, from which we abstract the following:— 
Much difficulty has been experienced by pharmaceu¬ 
tists in preparing belladonna plaster so as to retain its 
adhesiveness when kept ready spread for some time. 
The proposed improvement consists in the addition of 
indiarubber used in the form of a solution, made as 
follows:— 
Take of pure Caoutchouc, cut in small pieces, 1 oz. 
Benzine (from Petroleum), 1 pint. 
Macerate with occasional agitation in a suitable 
stopped, wide-mouthed bottle until a thick, saturated 
solution is obtained. To prove its efficacy in preserving 
the pliability of plasters, the author prepared a mixture 
of 3 ounces of Burgundy pitch, 4 drachms of yellow wax, 
2 drachms of rosin and 2 drachms of lard; melted and 
strained. This, when spread and kept two months, bo- 
■came very brittle and cracked on handling. 
The same ingredients, with the addition of 4 drachms 
•of liquid caoutchouc incorporated when they were in a 
fused state, possessed the following characters :— 
Very little tendency to crack, retains its pliability, is 
more adhesive, and has a beautiful smooth glossy ap¬ 
pearance. After two months, part of it very cold weather, 
this plaster retained its pliability. 
Experiments were then made with officinal belladonna 
plaster, which resulted in the following proportion being 
•considered most suitable :— 
Take of Belladonna Plaster (U.S.P.), 7 dims. 
Liquid Gum Elastic, 1 drm. 
The belladonna plaster to be melted by a water-bath, 
•and the liquid rubber then added and stirred well until 
united thoroughly. 
The odour of the benzine disappears when the solu¬ 
tion is added in this way. It is quite important to avoid an 
excess of heat, and hence the water-bath is recommended. 
Liquid rubber will be found to act admirably in all 
plasters which may be made to keep through the summer. 
—American Journal of Pharmacy. 
CRYSTALLIZATION OF SULPHO-CARBOLATE OF 
QUINIA. 
BY C. J. RADEMAKER, M.D. 
Having had occasion to prepare sulpho-carbolate of 
•quinia for hospital use in this city, the following process 
was resorted to:— 
Crude sulpho-carbolic acid was saturated with plumbic 
carbonate, the sulpho-carbolate of lead crystallized and 
decomposed with sulphate of quinine. The solution of 
sulpho-carbolate of quinine filtered and evaporated, but 
it was found almost impossible to crystallize the salt, 
■owing to the gelatinous condition of part of the solution, 
which adhered to the small amount of crystals formed. 
The gelatinous mass was redissolved in alcohol, and set 
aside to evaporate spontaneously, with the same result, 
it being found impossible to remove the crystals with 
any degree of nicety from the gelatinous mass. 
I then made a solution of sulpho-carbolate of quinine 
of definite strength, a teaspoonful of the solution repre¬ 
senting two grains of the crystallized salt, or as near 
two grains as I could calculate from the amount of sub¬ 
stance used. The liquid was composed of three parts 
water and one part alcohol, and set aside for prescription 
use. In about four or five weeks I noticed small crystals 
forming, which gradually increased in size, the large 
crystals resembling those of perchloride of iron. Under 
the microscope they made a beautiful prismatic appear¬ 
ance, but to what system of prisms they belonged I was 
unable to determine. Part of the crystals were taken 
out of the bottle and examined and found to be sulpho- 
carbolate of quinine. 
In about two months about one-third of the salt had 
crystallized out of the solution. The salt was freely 
soluble in water, but slightly soluble in alcohol, and not 
deliquescent.— American Journal of Pharmacy. 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF THE 
OPIUM ALKALOIDS. 
Part I.—On the Action of Hydrobromic Acicl on Codeia.* 
BY C. R. A. WRIGHT, D.SC. 
It has been shown by the late Dr. A. Matthiessen, in 
conjunction with the writer,f that when codeia is heated 
with a large excess of strong hydrochloric acid the 
following reactions successively take place :— 
Codeia. Chlorocodide. 
£ 18 H 21 N0 3 + HC1 = II 2 0 + C 18 H 20 ClNO 2 . 
Chlorocodide. Apomorphia. 
c 18 h 20 cino 2 = CH 3 C1 + c I7 h 17 no 2 . 
It appeared of interest to examine the action of hydro¬ 
bromic acid under similar circumstances, and for this 
purpose Messrs. Macfarlane, of Edinburgh, with their 
wonted liberality, put a considerable quantity of pure 
codeia at the writer’s disposal. 
The aqueous hydrobromic acid employed was obtained 
by the action of H 2 S on Br in presence of water, and 
subsequent rectification over pulverized K Br; it was 
free from S 0 4 II 2 and other sulphur compounds, had a 
sp. gr. of about 1 - 5, and contained about 48 per cent, of 
H Br. 
When codeia is heated with from three to six times its 
weight of this acid, either on a water-bath or to gentle 
ebullition over a flame, the liquid, which at first pro¬ 
duces no precipitate with solution of carbonate of soda, 
gradually darkens in colour, and acquires the property 
of yielding a dense white precipitate with this reagent. 
No appreciable quantity of methyl bromide is evolved 
during the first stages of this change, but, subsequently, 
this body is produced in some little quantity. 
The precipitate thrown down by carbonate of soda be¬ 
fore this further change ensues, appears to consist of a 
variable mixture of at least three substances, two of 
which are readily soluble in ether, while the third is but 
sparingly soluble in that menstruum; all are bases, the 
one insoluble in ether, and one of those soluble contain¬ 
ing bromine: the one apparently first formed is pro¬ 
duced by a reaction precisely analogous to that whereby 
chlorocodide is generated, viz.:— 
Codeia. Bromocodide. 
C 1S H 21 N0 3 + HBr = H 2 0 + C 18 H 2) BrN0 2 , 
and is, therefore, termed bromocodide ; this base appears 
to be acted on further with great ease, giving rise ulti¬ 
mately to the other two, the first of which has the con¬ 
stitution of codeia less one equivalent of oxygen, or 
CH 21 N0 2 , and is, therefore, provisionally named deoxy- 
codeia ; whilst the second has the composition of four 
molecules of codeia coalesced together, one of the 84 H 
atoms in the product being replaced by Br ; it is, there¬ 
fore, provisionally termed bromotetracodeia, the simplest 
* Extracted from the ‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ 
f Proc. Roy. Soc. vols. xvii. p. 460 j xviii. 83. 
