Novembe^hi897°'}  H yoscine-Scopolamine  Question.  595 
hyoscine,  and  at  the  same  time  possessing  its  characteristic  proper- 
ties regarding  salts  and  double  salts — properties  which  would  have 
rendered  such  an  alkaloid  incapable  of  being  overlooked.  The 
same  negative  result  was  had  from  investigation  of  the  alkaloids  of 
stramonium  seeds,  which,  likewise,  were  worked  in  quantities  of 
thousands  of  kilogrammes.  The  Merck  laboratories  are  also  con- 
tinually working,  for  alkaloids,  large  quantities  of  hyoscyamus  seeds 
and  scopolia  roots.  Also,  in  these  lines  of  manufacture,  we  con- 
stantly kept  our  attention  directed  toward  isolating  the  alkaloids 
occurring  among  the  residuary  bases.  Nevertheless,  the  search  for 
the  particular  base  here  in  question  has  proved  equally  fruitless  on 
these  two  drugs. 
In  this  connection  I  may  be  pardoned  the  liberty  of  alluding  to 
still  another  interesting  fact  developed  at  our  laboratories.  The 
statement  is  frequently  met  with  in  literature,  that  hyoscine  (that  is, 
scopolamine)  has  been  isolated  from  the  residual  bases  obtained  in 
the  manufacture  of  atropine.  Therefore,  it  might  readily  be  inferred 
that  hyoscine  is  a  side-base  to  hyoscyamine  or  atropine  in  the 
belladonna.  We  have  studiously  kept  this  issue  in  view  during  the 
working  of  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  kilos  of  belladonna  roots. 
And  still  we  have  never  been  able  to  discover  hyoscine  (meaning 
scopolamine)  among  the  residual  bases  resulting  from  these  exten- 
sive operations.  This  experience  of  ours  thus  directly  contradicts 
the  inference  before  mentioned.  The  experiences  of  others,  as 
quoted  before,  may  be  presumed  to  have  been  due  to  defective  sort- 
ing of  the  belladonna  roots,  among  which  may  have  remained  roots 
of  other  solanacese.  Or,  the  residues  remaining  from  the  manufac- 
ture of  various  solanaceous  alkaloids,  and  utilized  for  obtaining  side- 
bases,  may  not  have  been  kept  absolutely  apart. 
It  may  be  contended  that,  in  the  Merck  researches,  the  hyoscine 
or  scopolamine  that  might  have  been  present  could  have  been  over- 
looked in  consequence  of  its  own  minimal  quantity.  This  conten- 
tion, however,  is  met  by  the  fact  that  the  mixtures  of  residual  bases 
were,  at  the  end,  also  subjected  to  splitting;  whereupon  the  appear- 
ance of  scopoline  among  the  products  of  this  operation  must  have 
indicated  that  hyoscine  had  been  present,  if  such  were  indeed  the 
case.  From  a  single  batch,  tor  instance,  of  residual  bases  thus 
treated,  100  kilos  of  tropine  were  obtained,  whereas  the  presence 
of  a  higher-boiling  base  was  not  demonstrable. 
