4io 
Ergoxanthe'in. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(  September,  1910. 
ERGOXANTHE'IN. 
ERGOXANTHE1N,  A  NEW  ACTIVE  PRINCIPLE  FOUND  IN  ERGOT,  WITH 
A  BRIEF  HISTORICAL  SUMMARY  OF  THE  DISCOVERY  OF 
THE  ALKALOIDS  OF  ERGOT. 
By  W.  T.  Wenzell. 
The  writer  has  nothing-  further  to  announce  on  the  alkaloids 
ecboline  and  ergotine,  the  discovery  of  which  has  been  duly  credited 
and  confirmed  by  numerous  investigators  at  home  and  abroad. 
Their  discovery  was  announced  in  this  Journal  in  1864  (Am. 
Journ.  Pharm.). 
However,  the  priority  as  to  the  naming  of  these  alkaloids  has 
been  ignored  by  Kobert,  in  1884,  in  changing  the  name  of  ecboline 
to  coruntine,  by  Barger,  in  (1907)  changing  it  to  ergotoxine,  and  by 
Tanret,  in  1875,  ergotine  to  ergotinine.  Ecboline,  the  name  selected 
by  the  writer,  is  from  the  Greek  word  £k{3oAtz,  the  literal  translation 
of  which  is  "  to  throw  out,"  or  expel.  No  word  could  have  been 
better  chosen  or  adapted,  on  account  of  the  physiological  action 
of  this  alkaloid,  the  producer  of  the  tonic  contraction  of  the  uterus. 
Barger  and  Dale  make  the  statement  in  their  publication  (Ergo- 
toxine  and  Constituents  of  Ergot)  as  a  matter  of  fact  that  ergotoxine 
(ecboline)  in  intact  pregnancy  of  cats,  as  well  as  post-partem  cases, 
causes  uterine  contractions. 
Kobert  admitted  that  ecboline  and  coruntine  were  identical 
(Ueber  die  Bestandtheile  and  Wirkungen  des  Mutterkorns  1884, 
p.  46),  but  said  that  it  was  a  very  impure  substance  or  preparation 
of  his  alkaloid,  which  he  obtained  by  shaking  out  of  alkaline  solu- 
tions by  acetic  ether. 
(I  make  this  statement  that  Dragendorff's  method  of  extraction 
of  organic  principles  from  immiscible  liquids  by  ether  was  not 
known  in  1864.) 
Kobert  also  changed  the  name  of  sclerotinic  acid,  another  con- 
stituent of  ergot,  discovered  by  Dragendorff  and  Podwyssotzki 
(1876),  into  ergotinic  acid,  and  the  only  reason  he  gave  for  making 
this  change  was  that  his  ergotinic  acid  was  the  purer. 
Usually,  claims  of  priority  of  discovery  rest  with  the  discoverer, 
and  such  rights  should  be  respected. 
"  Honor  to  whom  honor  is  due  "  and  much  honor  is  also  un- 
