39° POISONS :• THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 453. 
It is better to use Nordhausen acid and afterwards KHO in absolute 
alcohol. The colour rapidly fades, but it may be made to reappear 
many times by adding fresh alcoholic potash. 
Atropine, homatropine, and hyoscyamine show an alkaline reaction 
with phenolphthalein : atropine and homatropine give a precipitate 
with HgCl 2 . Hyoscyamine, not cocaine, precipitates HgCl 2 , and is 
alkaline to litmus, but not to phenolphthalein. Atropine behaves as 
follows :—(1) Sodium nitrate, sulphuric acid, and afterwards sodium 
hydroxide, gives a violet colour ; (2) the test as before, but with nitrite 
instead of nitrate, gives an orange colour, which, on dilution with sodium 
hydroxide solution, changes to red, violet, or lilac ; (3) when heated 
with glacial acetic acid and sulphuric acid for a sufficient time, a 
greenish-yellow fluorescence is produced.—Fliickiger, Pharm. Journ. 
Trans. (3), xvi. 601-602. 
Vrewen (Zeit. f. Russland , xxxvi. 723) distinguishes between 
hyoscyamine and atropine by obtaining a crystalline precipitate with 
Marine’s reagent (10 grms. KI and 5 grms. Cdl, dissolved in 100 c.c. 
water). A drop of a solution of either alkaloid, weakly acidified with 
sulphuric acid, tested with a trace of Marme’s reagent, develops a crystal¬ 
line precipitate. The form of the crystals of the hyoscyamine compound 
differs entirely from that of the atropine compound. 
The two alkaloids, strychnine and atropine, are not likely to be 
often together in the human body, but that it may sometimes occur 
is shown by a case recorded by L. Fabris. 1 A patient in the hospital 
at Padua had for some time been treated with daily injections of 3 
mgrms. of strychnine nitrate ; unfortunately, one day, instead of the 
3 mgrms. of strychnine, the same quantity of atropine sulphate was 
injected, and the patient died after a few hours, with symptoms of 
atropine poisoning. 
On chemical treatment of the viscera, a mixture of alkaloids was 
obtained which did not give the reactions either of strychnine or of 
atropine. To test the possibility of these alkaloids obscuring each 
other’s reactions, 3 per cent, solutions (the strength of the injections) of 
atropine sulphate and strychnine nitrate were mixed together, and 
strychnine tested for by the dichromate and sulphuric acid test. 
A mixture of equal parts gave the strychnine reaction very clearly, 
but the atropine reaction not at all; 1 strychnine with 3 of atropine 
gave strychnine reaction, but not that of atropine ; 1 strychnine with 
4 atropine gave indistinct reactions for both alkaloids ; 1 of strychnine 
with 5 of atropine gave a momentary atropine reaction, the violet was, 
however, almost immediately replaced by a red colour. Yitali’s reaction 
was not clearly shown until the mixture was in the proportion of 9 of 
1 Gazzetta, xxii., i. 347-350. 
