Am  Jour.  PhaFm. 
June,  1889. 
Chemistry  of  the  Coca  bases. 
299 
with  considerable  frothing.  Liebermann  gives  the  melting  point  of 
ecgonine  hydrochloride  as  246°  C.,-  but  the  whole  of  the  alkaloid 
would  have  been  decomposed  long  before  reaching  that  temperature. 
This  decomposition  begins  in  fact  far  below  234°  C,  about  200°  C, 
and  its  commencement  is  recognizable  by  the  crackling  of  the  crystals. 
The  platinum  salt,  which  is  obtainable  in  several  forms  as  laminae, 
prisms  and  granular  crystals,  contained  25*26  per  cent,  platinum,  and 
the  formula  (C9H15N03)2PtCl6H2  requires  24*93  per  cent. 
Professor  Stockman  informs  me  that  the  physiological  action  of 
cocamine  is  similar  to  that  of  cocaine,  but  somewhat  weaker,  so  that 
it  must  be  given  in  larger  doses  ;  its  anaesthetic  action  is  especially 
weak.  Experiments  that  I  made  upon  myself  confirm  Stockman's 
observations,  and  I  wish  to  point  out  that  I  was  unable  to  detect  any 
poisonous  effect  of  cocamine.  This  is  the  more  remarkable,  since 
Lieberman  states  that  the  so-called  ^-isatropyl-cocaine  does  not  act  like 
cocaine,  but  as  a  heart  poison.  An  explanation  of  this  discrepancy 
will  perhaps  be  found  further  on. 
Attempts  were  made  to  obtain  cocamine  from  the  crude  bases  that 
remained  dissolved  by  petroleum  spirit  after  the  cocaine  had  been 
separated  from  that  solution,  but  without  success.  It  was  only  after 
the  mass  dissolved  by  dilute  sulphuric  acid  had  been  treated  with  per- 
manganate until  no  further  reduction  took  place  that  a  product  was 
obtained  by  fractional  precipitation,  which  when  boiled  with  dilute 
hydrochloric  acid  gave  for  the  most  part  ecgonine  and  cocaic  acid,  to- 
gether with  methyl  chloride.  At  the  same  time  there  was  obtained  a 
minute  quantity  of  a  brownish-yellow  oil,  which  resisted  the  action  of 
the  boiling  acid.  The  same  result  was  obtained  in  operating  upon  a 
specimen  of  isatropyl-cocaine  sent  to  me  by  Professor  Stockman. 
When  the  crude  bases  obtained  by  fractional  precipitation  were  dis- 
solved in  ether,  and  the  solution  evaporated,  there  remained  a  syrupy 
mass,  which  when  heated  for  some  time  to  60°  C,  no  longer  dissolved 
completely  in  dilute  acids.  But  the  portion  insoluble  in  dilute  acid 
was  dissolved  by  ammonia.  The  solution  gave  white  flocculent  pre- 
cipitates with  barium  chloride  and  dilute  acids.  The  substance  could 
be  obtained  pure  by  repeated  solution  in  ammonia  and  fractional  pre- 
cipitation with  hydrochloric  acid.  When  dried  in  the  air  it  could  be 
rubbed  to  a  yellowish-white  powder  that  melted  near  120°  C,  and  was 
readily  soluble  in  ether,  ammonia  and  caustic  soda,  but  not  in  dilute 
acids.    When  heated  with  concentrated  hydrochloric  acid  this  sub- 
