AmAJgust,Pimm'}     Alkaloids  Occurring  with  Cocaine.  433 
tively,  showing  that  a  trace  of  acid  increases  the  rapidity  of  fermen- 
tation. 
The  disastase-like  action  of  the  soluble  albuminoids  in  ungerminated 
barley  can  also  be  proved  experimentally,  and  the  author  gives  a  table 
showing  the  reducing  power  of  the  solutions  obtained  when  unger- 
minated barley  (2  samples),  maize,  and  malt,  respectively,  mixed 
either  with  water  alone  or  with  water  and  a  trace  of  acetic  or  meta- 
phosphoric  acid,  are  kept  at  a  suitable  temperature.  Under  the  above 
conditions,  the  starch  in  the  grain  is  only  slowly  acted  on ;  it  was 
found  that  fermentation  takes  place  much  more  rapidly  when  starch  - 
paste  is  treated  with  a  relatively  small  quantity  of  ungerminated 
barley.  The  results  of  experiments  in  this  direction,  in  presence  or 
in  absence  of  a  trace  of  acetic  acid,  are  also  given  in  a  table. 
The  author  considers  that  it  is  not  improbable  that  in  the  germina- 
tion of  barley  and  other  seeds,  the  solubility  and  fermentive  power  of 
a  portion  of  the  albuminoids  is  produced  by  reactions  similar  to  those 
which  occur  when  gluten  is  dissolved  in  very  dilute  acids. 
ALKALOIDS  OCCURRING  WITH  COCAINE.1 
By  A.  Einhorn. 
Liebermann  and  Giesel  have  recently  shown  that  when  the  amor- 
phous bases  occurring  with  cocaine  are  boiled  for  an  hour  with  hy- 
drochloric acid,  they  are  chiefly  converted  into  ecgonine  and  acids. 
This  fact  has  long  been  known  technically.  The  bases  are  warmed 
for  three  to  four  days  with  concentrated  hydrochloric  acid,  the  solution 
is  diluted  with  water,  and  after  separating  the  acids,  concentrated  and 
mixed  with  ether,  whereon  most  of  the  ecgonine  hydrochloride  separ- 
ates immediately.  The  filtrate,  after  freeing  from  alcohol  and  ether, 
is  kept  for  some  months  so  that  the  rest  of  the  salt  may  separate,  then 
diluted  with  water  to  precipitate  small  quantities  of  resinous  matter, 
and  again  evaporated  to  a  syrup. 
The  author  has  investigated  a  syrup  obtained  in  this  manner.  It 
was  dissolved  in  water,  separated  from  resinous  substances,  mixed  with 
soda  and  the  bright  yellow  precipitate,  which  consists  chiefly  of  an 
amorphous  substance,  dried  and  extracted  with  absolute  alcohol.  The 
filtrate  from  the  yellow  precipitate  contains  anhydroecgonine,  which 
can  be  isolated  by  acidifying  with  hydrochloric  acid,  removing  resin- 
1Ber.,  xxii,  399-402 ;  from  Jour.  Chem.  Soc,  June,  p.  628. 
