14 
ASSAY  OF  ALKALOIDS. 
Mr.  Groves'  Formula.  My  Formula. 
Cht+HI+2HgL  2Chi+3HI+5HgL 
Quinia       324  2  quinia  648 
HI  128  3  HI  384 
2  Hgl      454  5  Hgl  1135 
906  2167 
The  formulae  require,  in  100  parts, 
Groves'  formula.     His  analysis.  My  formula. 
Quinia  (+H)      35-88                30-40  30-05 
Iodine               42-05                46-52  46-88 
Mercury           22-07                23-08  23-07 
100-00  100.00  100-00 
This  simply  means  that  Mr.  Groves'  analysis  establishes  my 
theory. 
It  would  be  wrong  to  leave  the  impression  as  if  he  en- 
tirely approved  of  his  results ;  but  the  very  singular  conclu- 
sion that  he  arrives  at  is,  that  all  other  chemists  are  mistaken 
in  the  matter  of  the  equivalents  of  the  cinchona-alkaloids.  He 
suggests  that  they  be  revised,  and  raises  the  further  question, 
"  whether  or  not  the  rectification  of  equivalents  may  be  extended 
to  other  alkaloids  less  known  than  the  cinchona  series."  This 
paragraph  I  must  take  for  an  acknowledgment  on  his  part  that 
there  really  are  other  precipitates  which  do  not  agree  with  his 
theory ! 
What  has  been  said  in  regard  to  the  quinia  salt  refers  equally 
to  that  of  cinchonia.  I  must  here  remark  that,  with  a  care- 
lessness quite  peculiar,  in  recording  experiments,  if  not 
in  conducting  them,  he  allows  us  to  suppose  that  100  grains  of 
the  quinia  solution  in  one  case  required  140,  and  in  another  230 
grain  measures  of  test  liquid  ;  for,  although  it  must  be  supposed 
that  in  the  latter  case  he  used  twice  the  quantity  of  alkaloid, 
he  never  alludes  to  it,  but  allows  the  reader  to  draw  his  own 
conclusions  from  the  glaring  discrepancy  in  the  results  ;  and 
he  continues  this  precisely  in  the  same  manner  in  his  assay  of 
cinchonia. 
