328 POISONS : TIIEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 395 . 
when in a concentration of 0*1 per cent, the specific rotation is —119*3° 
(Tykociner, Rec. Trav. Chim., i. 148). Oudemans (Liebig’s Annalen der 
Chemie, clxvi. 76) gives for a solution in alcohol of density 0*865, and a 
concentration of 0*91 per cent., a rotation of —128°. The same author 
gives the following:—4 per cent, solution in chloroform, —130° ; 2*25 per 
cent., —137*7° ; 1*5 per cent., —140*7° ; and in 0*53 per cent., —235°. 
§ 395. Strychnine Salts. — The salts used in medicine are—the 
hydrochloride, official in the B.P. ; the sulphate , official only in the 
French pharmacopoeia ; the nitrate, official in the German, Austrian, 
Swiss, Norse, and Dutch pharmacopoeias ; and the acetate, well known in 
commerce, but not official. 
Strychnine Hydrochloride (C 21 H 22 N 2 0 2 HC12H 2 0) is in the form of small, 
colourless, prismatic crystals soluble in 60 parts of water, and resulting 
solution neutral. Dried at 10°, it loses from 7 to 9 per cent, of its weight. 
The commercial Sulphate (C 21 H 22 N 2 0 2 ,H 2 S0 4 -f-2H 2 0) is an acid salt 
crystallising in needles which lose water at 150° ; the neutral sulphate, 
(C 21 H 22 N 2 0 2 ) 2 H 2 S0 4 -[-7H 2 0, crystallises in four-sided, orthorhombic 
prisms, and is soluble in about 50 parts of cold water. 
The Nitrate (C 21 H 22 N 2 0 2 ,HN0 3 ) crystallises on evaporation from a 
warm solution of the alkaloid in dilute nitric acid, in silky needles, mostly 
collected in groups. The solubility of this salt is considerable, one part 
dissolving in 50 of cold, in 2 of boiling water; its solubility in boiling and 
cold alcohol is almost the same, taking 60 of the former and 2 of the latter. 
The Acetate crystallises in tufts of needles ; as stated, it is not 
official in any of the European jxharmacopoeias. 
The chief precipitates or sparingly soluble crystalline compounds of 
strychnine are :— 
1. The Chromate of Strychnine (C 21 H 22 N 2 0 2 ,CrH0 2 ), formed by 
adding a neutral solution of chromate of potash to a solution of a strych¬ 
nine salt, crystallises out of hot water in beautiful, very slightly soluble, 
orange-yellow needles, mixed with plates of various size and thickness. 
The salt is of great practical use to the analyst; for by its aid strychnine 
may be separated from a variety of substances, and in part from brucine 
—the colour tests being either applied direct to the strychnine chromate, 
or the chromate decomposed by ammonia, and the strychnine recovered 
from the alkaline liquid by chloroform. 
2. Sulphocyanide of Strychnine (C 21 H 22 N 2 0 2 ,CNHS) is a thick, 
white precipitate, produced by the addition of a solution of potassic 
sulphocyanide to that of a strychnine salt; on warming it dissolves, but 
on cooling reappears in the form of long silky needles. 
3. Double Salts. —The platinum compound obtained by adding a 
solution of platinic chloride to one of strychnine chloride has the com¬ 
position G 21 H 22 N 2 0 2 ,HClPtCl 2 , and crystallises out of weak boiling alcohol 
(in which it is somewhat soluble) in gold-like scales. The similar pal- 
