52       DETECTING  THE  ORGANIC  ALKALOIDS  IN  CASES  OF  POISONING. 
the  whole  with  four  or  five  times  its  bulk  of  pure  ether,  and  leave 
it  to  settle.  When  the  ether  swimming  on  the  top  is  perfectly 
clear,  then  decant  some  of  it  into  a  capsule,  and  leave  it  in  a  very 
dry  place  to  spontaneous  evaporation. 
Now,  two  orders  of  things  may  present  themselves  ;  either  the 
alkaloid  contained  in  the  suspected  matter  is  liquid  and  volatile, 
or  solid  and  fixed.    I  shall  now  consider  these  twTo  hypotheses. 
Examination  for  a  Liquid  and  Volatile  Alkali. 
We  suppose  there  exists  a  liquid  and  volatile  alkaloid.  In  such 
a  case,  by  the  evaporation  of  the  ether,  there  remains  in  the  inside 
of  the  capsule  some  small  liquid  striae  which  fall  to  the  bottom  of 
the  vessel.  In  this  case,  under  the  influence  of  the  heat  of  the 
hand,  the  contents  of  the  capsule  exhale  an  odor,  more  or  less 
disagreeable,  which  becomes,  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
alkaloid,  more  or  less  pungent,  suffocating,  irritant  ;  it  presents, 
in  short,  a  smell  like  that  of  a  volatile  alkali  masked  by  an  animal 
odor.  If  we  discover  any  traces  of  the  presence  of  a  volatile 
alkaloid,  we  add  then  to  the  contents  of  the  vessel,  from  which  we 
have  decanted  a  small  quantity  of  ether,  one  or  two  fluid  drachms 
of  a  strong  solution  of  caustic  potash  or  soda,  and  agitate  the  mix- 
ture. After  a  sufficient  time,  we  draw  off  the  ether  into  a  test- 
tube  ;  we  exhaust  the  mixture  by  two  or  three  treatments  with 
ether,  and  unite  all  the  ethereal  fluids.  We  pour  afterwards  into 
this  ether,  holding  the  alkaloid  in  solution,  one  or  two  drachms  of 
water,  acidulated  with  a  fifth  part  of  its  weight  of  pure  sulphuric 
acid,  agitate  it  for  some  time,  leave  it  to  settle,  pour  off  the  ether 
swimming  on  the  top,  and  wash  the  acid  liquid  at  the  bottom  with 
a  new  quantity  of  ether.  As  the  sulphates  of  ammonia,  of  nicotine, 
aniline,  quinoleine,  picoline,  and  petinine,  are  entirely  insoluble 
in  ether,  the  water  acidulated  with  sulphuric  acid  contains  the 
alkaloid  in  a  small  bulk,  and  in  the  state  of  a  pure  sulphate  ;  but 
as  the  sulphate  of  conia  is  soluble  in  ether,  the  eiher  may  contain 
a  small  quantity  of  this  alkali,  but  the  greater  part  remains  in  the 
acidulated  watery  solution.  The  ether,  on  the  other  hand,  retains 
all  the  animal  matters  which  it  has  taken  from  the  alkaline  solu- 
tions. If  it  on  spontaneous  evaporation  leaves  a  small  quantity  of 
a  feebly-colored  yellowish  residue,  of  a  repulsive  animal  odor, 
mixed  with  a  certain  quantity  of  sulphate  of  conine,  this  alkaloid 
