402 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§§ 467, 468. 
(J grain) begin to act within a quarter of an hour ; the face flushes, 
the pupils dilate, there is no excitement, all muscular motion is 
enfeebled, and the patient remains quiet for many hours, the effects 
from a single dose not uncommonly lasting two days. 64-8 mgrms. 
(1 grain) would be a very large, and possibly fatal, dose. The absence 
of delirium or excitement, with full doses of hyoscyamine, is a striking 
contrast to the action of atropine, in every other respect so closely 
allied ; yet there are cases on record showing that the henbane root 
itself has an action similar to that of belladonna, unless indeed one root 
has been mistaken for another ; e.g. Sonnenschein relates the following 
ancient case of poisoning :—In a certain cloister the monks ate by error 
the root of henbane. In the night they were all taken with hallucina¬ 
tions, so that the pious convent was like a madhouse. One monk sounded 
at midnight the matins ; some who thereupon came into chapel could not 
read, others read what was not in the book, others sang drinking-songs— 
in short, there was the greatest disturbance. 
§ 467. Separation of Hyoscyamine from Organic Matters. —The 
isolation of the alkaloid from organic tissues or fluids, in cases where a 
medicinal preparation of henbane, or of the leaves, root, etc., has been 
taken, is possible, and should be carried out on the principles already 
detailed. Hyoscyamine is mainly identified by its power of dilating the 
pupil of the eye. It is said that so small a quantity as -0083 mgrm. 
(ToW grain) will in fifteen minutes dilate the eye of a rabbit. It is true 
that atropine also dilates the pupil; but if sufficient of the substance 
should have been isolated to apply other tests, it can be distinguished 
from atropine by the fact that the latter gives no immediate precipitate 
with platinic chloride, whilst hyoscyamine is precipitated by a small 
quantity of platinic chloride, and dissolved by a larger amount, by the 
characters of the gold salt, and by the different form of the crystals in 
the precipitate by Mamie’s reagent (see p. 390). 
2. SCOPOLAMINE. 
§ 468. Scopolamine, C 17 H 21 N0 4 .—According to Schmidt, 1 and more lately to 
Merck, Ladenburg’s 2 hyoscine C 17 H 23 N0 3 does not exist, and is nothing but impure 
scopolamine. Scopolamine crystallises with one molecule of water. It is soluble in 
alcohol, ether, chloroform, etc., but not very soluble in water. Scopolamine has a 
melting-point of 59°, gives an aurochloride crystallising in needles, melting at 212°- 
214°. The hydrobromide has a specific rotation of —25° 41'. It is a tertiary base 
containing an a-methyl group. Boiled with baryta water it yields tropic acid and 
scopoline. 
Ci 7 h 21 no 4 +h 2 o c 9 h 10 o 3 +c 8 h 13 no 2 
Scopolamine. Tropic acid. Scopoline. 
Scopoline forms an aurochloride melting at 223°—225°, and a platinochloride melting 
at 228°-230°. By the action of alkalies and alkaline carbonates, scopolamine may be 
1 Arch. Pharm., ccxxx. 207 - 231 . 
2 Journ. Soc. Chem. Ind., xvi. 515. 
