Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.,  1887. 
Ethoxycaffeine. 
29 
and  even  44'76  per  cent.  •  of  the  last  mentioned  4  to  5  per  cent,  dis- 
solved in  hydrochloric  acid  the  remainder  being  admixed  sand.  In 
order  to  ascertain  the  true  ash  content  of  hop  glands  the  author  tried 
to  free  a  quantity  from  sand  by  washing  it  with  water  six  times  in  a 
large  beaker.  After  drying  over  sulphuric  acid  the  lupulin  gave  upon 
incineration  an  average  of  10*81  of  residue,  which  still  contained  some 
sand  adherent  to  the  sticky  glands.  Fluckiger  found  in  a  good  sample, 
dried  in  a  water  bath,  7*7  per  cent,  of  ash. 
In  conclusion  the  author  estimates  the  ash  in  ipecacuanha  root  at 
1*98  per  cent. ;  the  wood  giving  1*37  per  cent,  and  the  bark  2'25  per 
cent.— Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans.,  Sept.  23,  1886,  p.  330. 
ON  ETHOXYCAFFEINE. 
By  D.  J.  Leech. 
Four  or  five  years  ago  Fischer  (Berichte  der  deutseh.  chem.  Gesell- 
schaft,  1881  and  1882,  see  Amee.  Jour.  Phar.  1882,  p.  218,  and  1883, 
p.  551),  published  a  series  of  papers  bearing  on  the  chemical  constitu- 
tion of  caffeine,  theobromine,  xanthine,  and  some  of  their  derivatives. 
He  showed  that  a  close  relationship  exists  between  these  three  sub- 
stances, theobromine  being  dimethylxauthine,  that  is  xanthine  in 
which  two  equivalents,  of  hydrogen  are  replaced  by  two  of  methyl, 
whilst  caffeine  is  trimethylxanithine,  three  equivalents  of  hydrogen 
being  here  replaced  by  three  of  methyl.  He  showed,  too,  that  it  is 
possible  to  carry  such  substitution  farther,  and  to  replace  one  or  two 
atoms  of  hydrogen  in  the  caffeine  by  one  or  two  of  hydroxyl,  meth- 
oxyl,  or  ethoxyl.  By  so  doing  compounds  are  produced  to  which  he 
gave  the  names  hydroxy  caffeine,  dihydroxycaffeine,  ethoxycaffeine. 
Filehn  (Archiv  far  Anat.  und  Phys.y  1886)  records  experiments  on 
the  physiological  action  of  the  compounds  thus  formed.  He  finds 
that  0*2  gm.  of  hydroxycaffeine  is  required  to  produce  on  the  muscu- 
lar system  of  the  frog  such  rigidity  as  follows  7  milligrams  of  caffeine. 
If  two  equivalents  of  hydrogen  be  replaced  by  hydroxyl  the  com- 
pound (dihydroxycaffeine)  produces  no  effect  on  the  muscular  system. 
So  far  the  experiments  only  indicated  another  interesting  relationship 
between  chemical  composition  and  physiological  action,  but  his  ex- 
amination of  ethoxycaffeine  seems  likely  to  be  of  direct  therapeutic 
