REMARKS  ON  PROPYLAMINE 
>  *  r*  **  4  ^ 
OCT  P*VQ^ 
1,5 
REMARKS  ON  PROPYLAMIN. 
By  William  Procter,  Jr. 
With  the  progress  of  discovery  since  the  year  1817,  when 
Sertuerner  recognized  the  alkalinity  of  morphia,  the  therapeu- 
tist has  been  more  and  more  convinced  that  the  organic  alkalies 
have  been  specially  endowed  with  more  well  defined  and  concen- 
trated medicinal  power  than  any  other  group  of  organic  bodies. 
These  remarkable  substances,  rendered  stable  by  natural  union 
with  acids  occurring  with  them,  seem  destined  in  the  economy  of 
nature  to  minister  to  disease,  as  in  most  instances  they  do  not 
appear  to  possess  any  other  uses.  Since  the  discovery  by 
Wurtz  and  others  of  the  important  fact,  that  organic  al- 
kalies may  be  produced  artificially  in  the  laboratory,  it 
does  not  appear  that  much  attention  has  been  directed  to  the 
therapeutic  power  of  these  derivative  bodies  ;  yet  in  some  few 
instances  it  has  been  accorded,  and  there  can  hardly  be  a  doubt 
that  a  rich  harvest  awaits  the  researches  of  experiment  in  this 
direction  by  the  ^enlightened  physician.  The  number  of  these 
alkalies  has  been  largely  increased  by  Hoffman,  and  Anderson. 
Several  of  these,  strictly  artificial  at  first,  so  far  as  known,  have 
since  been  discovered  in  nature,  and  among  them  propylamin  the 
subject  of  this  notice. 
Having  been  several  times  applied  to  for  propylamin  by  phy- 
sicians, and  this  alkaloid  not  being  procurable  in  commerce,  it 
has  been  thought  advisable  to  publish  a  formula  for  its  prepara- 
tion, and  give  a  notice  of  its  characters  more  in  detail  than  is 
found  in  authorities  generally  accessible.  The  origin  of  the 
demand  for  propylamin  appears  to  have  arisen  from  its  asserted 
power  in  cases  of  rheumatism,  and  its  variations,  by  Dr,  Awen- 
arius  of  St.  Petersburg,  the  following  notice  of  whose  researches 
is  translated  from  Bouchardat's  Repertoire  de  JPharmacie,  Dec, 
1858  : — "  Propylamin,  as  obtained  from  the  pickle  of  herrings, 
codliver  oil,  ergot,  human  urine,  etc.,  appears,  according  to  the 
author,  to  possess  the  power  of  a  true  specific  for  the  various 
affections  of  rheumatic  origin.  The  diagnoses  of  these  diseases 
being  often  very  obscure,  one  can  succeed  (says  M.  Awenarius) 
by  the  use  of  propylamin  in  bringing  to  light  in  a  few  days  the 
