THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
NOVEMBER,  1889. 
THE  SYNTHESIS  OF  ALKALOIDS. 
By  Professor  Samuel  P.  Sadtler,  Ph.  D. 
From  an  Introductory  Lecture  to  the  69th  course  of  the  Philadelphia  College 
of  Pharmacy. 
While  this  introductory  lecture  is  not  designed  to  be  one  of  the 
special  chemical  course,  it  is  fitting  that,  as  Professor  of  Chemistry,  I 
should  present  to  you  some  general  observations  taken  from  that 
branch  of  science. 
Six  years  ago,  in  opening  the  course  of  J  883-84,  I  took  as  a  subject 
for  some  remarks  "  Recent  Studies  on  the  Constitution  of  the  Alka- 
loids." I  propose  to  look  at  that  subject  again  for  a  few  minutes  this 
evening,  and  to  combine  with  it  some  mention  of  several  classes  of 
compounds  of  equal  medicinal  and  pharmaceutical  importance,  viz. : 
the  hypnotics,  antiseptics,  and  antipyretics  of  synthetic  manufacture, 
that  have  been  so  numerously  brought  forward  in  the  last  few  years. 
In  the  lecture  of  1883,  reference  was  made  to  the  fact  that  recent 
discoveries  pointed  strongly  to  the  derivation  of  many  of  the  alkaloids 
from  either  pyridine  C5H5N  or  quinoline  C9H7N.  Since  that  time 
this  relation  has  been  clearly  established  in  a  large  number  of  cases, 
and  several  of  the  alkaloids  have  been  made  by  distinct  synthesis 
from  pyridine  and  its  derivatives.  On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been 
shown  that  some  of  the  organic  bases  found  in  the  vegetable  kingdom 
stand  in  much  closer  relation  to  the  bases  found  in  the  animal  organ, 
ism,  such  as  urea,  than  they  do  to  the  other  plant  bases.  Thus 
caffeine  and  theobromine  are  undoubtedly  urea  derivatives,  while 
quinine  and  morphine  show  no  relation  whatever  to  this  base,  but  are 
pyridine  derivatives. 
Konigs,  therefore,  has  proposed  to  limit  the  name  alkaloid  to  the 
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