398 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§§ 463, 464. 
as possible ; atropine dries, pilocarpine moistens the skin ; atropine 
accelerates, pilocarpine slows the respiration. Dr Sydney Ringer and 
others have published a remarkable series of cases showing the efficacy 
of this treatment, which, of course, is to be combined where necessary 
with emetics, the use of the stomach-pump, etc. 1 
§ 463. Separation of Atropine from Organic Tissues, etc. —From 
the contents of the stomach, atropine may be separated by acidulating 
strongly with sulphuric acid (15 to 20 c.c. of dilute H 2 S0 4 to 100 c.c.), 
digesting for some time at a temperature not exceeding 70°, and then re¬ 
ducing any solid matter to a pulp by friction, and filtering, which can 
generally be effected by the aid of a filter-pump. The liver, muscles, 2 
and coagulated blood, etc., may also be treated in a precisely similar way. 
The acid liquid thus obtained is first, to remove impurities, shaken up 
with amyl alcohol, and after the separation of the latter in the usual 
manner, it is agitated with chloroform, which will take up any of the re¬ 
maining amyl alcohol, 3 and also serve to purify further. The chloroform 
is then removed by a pipette (or the separating flask before described), 
and the fluid made alkaline, and shaken up with ether, which, on re¬ 
moval, is allowed to evaporate spontaneously. The residue will contain 
atropine, and this may be further purified by converting it into oxalate, 
as suggested, page 391. 
From the urine, 4 atropine may be extracted by acidifying with 
sulphuric acid, and agitation with the same series of solvents. Atropine 
has been separated from putrid matters long after death, nor does it 
appear to suffer any decomposition by the ordinary analytical operations 
of evaporating solutions to dryness at 100°. In other words, there 
seems to be no necessity for operations in vacuo, in attempts at separat¬ 
ing atropine. 
1. HYOSCYAMINE, 
w 
§ 464. This powerful alkaloid is contained in small quantities in 
datura and belladonna, and also is found in the common lettuce (-001 
per cent.), 5 and in Scopola carniolioa, a solanaceous plant indigenous to 
Austria and Hungary ; 6 but its chief source is the Hyoscyamus niger 
1 See, for Dr Ringer’s cases, Lancet, 1876, i. 346. Refer also to Brit. Med. Journ., 
1881, i. 594 ; ibid., p. 659. 
2 Neither amyl alcohol nor chloroform removes atropine from an acid solution. 
3 Atropine goes into the blood, and appears to be present in the different organs 
in direct proportion to the quantity of blood they contain. Dragendorff has found 
in the muscles of rabbits fed upon belladonna sufficient atropine for quantitative 
estimation. 
4 Dragendorff has found atropine in the urine of rabbits fed with belladonna ; the 
separation of the poison is so rapid that it often can only be recognised in the urine 
during the first hour after the poison has been taken. 
6 T. S. Dymond, Journ. Chem. Soc., T., 1892, p. 90. 
u \V. R. Dunstan and A. E. Chaston, Pharm. Journ., T. (3), xx. 461-464. 
