NOTES ON CONESSINE, OR WRIGHTINE. 
433 
The' 1 paper itself was not published in the Transactions. I was in hopes to 
be able to make a full investigation of the new alkaloid, and to publish the 
results in a complete state, and my object at the time was merely to record the 
fact of the discovery, to exhibit a pure specimen of the alkaloid, and to demon¬ 
strate its nature in presence of the Society. Unfortunately, the demands made 
by public duty are here so numerous and exacting, that I have been unable 
thoroughly to fulfil my intention ; but the publication of Dr. Stenhouse’s paper 
obliges me, in justice to myself, to give as they are the results of my experi¬ 
ments, which were made at irregular intervals, and under circumstances far from 
favourable to accuracy, chiefly in the month of December, 1858. 
The Wrightia antidysenterica is a small forest-tree, tolerably abundant over 
all Western India. It grows here and thereon the hills on this and the neigh¬ 
bouring islands, but most abundantly in the Southern Konkan, and in the 
Sawunt Warree and Goa territories. The part of the tree on which I operated 
was the bark, which is of a reddish-brown colour, but lighter towards the wood, 
and loose and spongy in texture. It was coarsely powdered, thoroughly moist¬ 
ened with hydrochloric acid diluted with six parts of water, and after twenty- 
four hours, packed in a percolator and exhausted with cold water. The liquid 
was precipitated by an excess of ammonia, and the precipitate washed, dried, 
and exhausted with alcohol. After filtration, the alcohol was distilled off, the 
syrupy residue mixed with acetate of lead and a little ammonia, evaporated to 
dryness at a gentle heat, and exhausted with ether. The ethereal solution had 
a pale yellow colour, and on evaporation left the alkaloid as a tough, brownish- 
yellow, semitransparent, resinoid mass. Various attempts to crystallize it were 
made, but without the least success. Its taste and that of its salts was ex¬ 
tremely bitter, conjoined with a distinct kind of acridity. After being tho¬ 
roughly dried in vacuo over sulphuric acid, it was gradually heated in a test- 
tube placed in an oil-bath. At 71° C. it became soft, like wax; at 100° it was 
thoroughly melted ; at 110° a few bubbles, either of water or spirit vapour, 
were given off ; at 177° it acquired a dark brown colour ; and at 205° it boiled 
up and became decomposed. 
The solution in hydrochloric acid gave with bichloride of platinum a loose 
flocculent precipitate, rather fawn-coloured than yellow. After thorough wash¬ 
ing and drying, this precipitate yielded in two trials 25-26 and 25"06 per cent, 
of metallic platinum : mean 25T6 ; giving as the equivalent of the alkaloid, 
taking the formula of the platinum salt as HCl,PtCl s , 186-4. Some of 
the platinum precipitate having been left at rest in the mother-liquor for several 
days, a number of dark orange-coloured bodies were observed to be dispersed 
through the pulpy mass, and partly settled at the bottom of the vessel. On 
close inspection, these were found not to be crystals, but globular, semitranspa¬ 
rent masses of the size of pins’- heads. They increased considerably in number, 
but not in size, by standing. As it appeared probable that these contained the 
platinum salt in a purer state than the bulk of the precipitate, they were sepa¬ 
rated by decantation, dried, powdered, dried again, and ignited. 
I.—*7445 gm. left T835 platinum = 24-65 per cent. 
II.—-5415 gm. left *1330 platinum = 24-56 per cent. 
Mean, 24-605 
This gives -196 as the equivalent of the alkaloid. 
I. —-308 gm. pure alkaloid, burnt with oxide of copper only, gave carbonic 
acid -8843, and water -310. 
II. —-506 gm. platinum salt, equal to -2465 alkaloid, burnt with oxide of 
copper mixed with one-fiftli chromate of lead, gave *6985 carbonic acid, and 
•264 water. 
III. —-346 gm. platinum salt, equal to T686 alkaloid, burnt 'with soda-lime 
