ON ACONITE. 
121 
it was twenty years ago, when Dr. Pereira swallowed a full grain of a French 
so-called aconitine, without experiencing from it any effect whatever, whereas 
Mr. Morson’s preparation had caused danger to a patient taking of ^ 
grain only. Dr. Yon Planta, writing in 1850 of Merk’s aconitine, found it 
contained both resinous and earthy matters. 
A good deal has lately been written about the chemistry of aconite,—more, 
in fact, than I care to transcribe. I will, however, point out a very good 
process for preparing aconitine, devised by MM. Liegois and Wattot. It 
may be found at leugth in the forty-fourth volume of the ‘ Journal de Phar- 
macie et de Chimie.’ It may be described shortly thus :— 
“ Macerate for eight days the coarsely-powdered root in sufficient rectified 
spirit, acidulated slightly with sulphuric acid; express, distil off the greater 
part of the spirit, and allow the liquid to cool; remove from its'surface the 
floating oil and resin, continue the evaporation to a syrupy consistence, wash 
liglitly with sulphuric ether to remove all traces of resin ; add magnesia, 
agitate several times with sulphuric ether, to remove the alkaloid ; evaporate 
the sulphuric ether, dissolve the residue in a slight excess of sulphuric acid, 
precipitate gradually by dilute ammonia, rejecting the first portions which 
are coloured. The latter portions are perfectly white, and, in the opinion of 
the inventors, respond to all the requirements of pure aconitine.” This pre¬ 
paration, nevertheless, shows no tendency to crystallize, and hence differs from 
most of the aconitines of commerce, which more frequently than not are 
partly cr 3 ^stalline. It is said, also, to differ from them in possessing much 
greater activity. The medicinal dose has been fixed at half a milligramme = 
seventy-seven ten-thousandths of a grain. 
The process for aconitine contained in the British Pharmacopoeia is a great 
improvement on its predecessor, and with slight modifications would give fair 
result?. 
At the Exhibition of 1862 every pharmaceutist must have noticed with 
surprise and pleasure the magnificent specimen of aconitine in perfectly de¬ 
fined large crystals contributed by Mr. Morson. That fact must be admitted 
to have settled the question of crystallizability. Moreover, at the same Exhibi¬ 
tion I showed small specimens of the same alkaloid crytallized in its free state, 
as hydrochlorate, hydriodate, and nitrate, which some two years before I had 
prepared by a process which I will proceed to explain, first observing that it 
is one of general application. 
I prepare n strong tincture of aconite, by macerating for about a week 
5 lb. of coarsely-powdered aconite root in 1 lb. of methylated spirit, acidu¬ 
lated with 2^ oz. of strong hydrochloric acid. The materials being of less 
value than my time, I simply express the fluid (leaving about one-sixth in the 
marc unrecovered), add to it half a pint of water, and distil off the spirit. 
During the distillation the resin and oil gradually separate, leaving the basic 
matters in possession of the acid watery fluid left in the retort. It is poured 
from thence to an open basin, and the last traces of spirit chased pff. When 
cool, the clear liquid is separated by pipette and filter from the thick oily mass 
floating on it. This operation requires both time and patience, but it ishdvisable 
to do it well, and completely purge the liquid of matters insoluble in acidulated 
water. To the clear liquid add a slight excess of a strong solution of iodohy- 
drargyrate of potash ; heat gradually the resulting thick creamy fluid to about 
100°, stirring the while, and separate the concrete resinous mass that results. 
In this way I have got on the average an ounce of crude iodohydrargyrate, 
to decompose which is the next business. The best way to do this is to dis¬ 
solve it in hot methylated spirit, and add a slight excess of nitrate of silver in 
hot watery solution. By this means the whole of the iodine is removed in 
the simplest way, but, it may be objected, not in the most economical, as a 
