THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
APRIL,  1882. 
ON  HOMATROPINE. 
By  Prof.  Frederick  B.  Power,  Pit.B. 
Bead  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  March  21,  1882. 
Amoni^  the  many  interesting  problems  of  on^janic  cliemistry  which 
have  received  the  attention  of  chemists,  that  baarini^  upon  the  consti- 
tution and  relations  of  the  alkaloids  of  the  Solanacca;  is  one  of  the 
more  important  in  its  character,  not  alone  from  the  results  at  present 
accomplished,  but  also  with  regard  to  its  ultimately  more  extended 
application ;  and  it  is  chiefly  to  the  classical  investigations  of  Laden- 
burg  that  we  owe  the  many  valuable  contributions  in  this  special 
department  of  chemical  research. 
Although  the  results  of  the  progressive  investigations  of  Ladenburg 
have  from  time  to  time  been  made  known  to  the  readers  of  the  Jour- 
nal through  the  "  Chemical  Notes"  of  Prof.  Sadtler  (this  journal, 
1880,  pp.  148,  198,  367,  550),  it  has  seemed  desirable  that  a  some- 
what more  extended  notice  should  be  given  of  that  derivative  of  atro- 
pine which  has  received  the  appellation  of  homatropine,  and  which,  in 
the  form  of  hydrobromate,  has  recently  been  brought  more  promi-- 
nently  to  professional  notice  through  its  valuable  application  in 
ophthalmic  practice. 
It  may  thus  be  primarily  stated  that  it  is  not  the  purport  of  this 
notice  to  record  any  hitherto  unknown  facts,  but  rather  to  briefly 
summarize  the  more  imj^ortant  points  of  interest  relating  to  the  body 
known  as  homatropine  and  to  render  the  substance  of  the  literature 
connected  therewith,  which  is  principally  distributed  through  the 
German  scientific  periodicals,  accessible  to  the  readers  of  the  home 
journal. 
As  is  well  known,  the  first  contribution  to  the  constitfition  of  atro- 
pine was  furnished  by  Kraut  and  Lessen,^  who,  by  the  aclion  of  either 
1  "  Annal.  Cliem.  Pharm.,"  Bd.  138. 
10 
