CONSTITUENTS  OF  CCCA  LEAVES. 
125 
taming  iodine  a  strong  brownish  red  precipitate,  which  darkens 
gradually. 
Tincture  of  iodine,  no  turbidity  in  the  alcoholic  solution  of 
cocaina.  No  reactions  were  obtained  with  phosphate  of  soda, 
bicarbonate  of  potassa,  tartar  emetic,  acetate  and  subacetate  of 
lead,  sesquichloride  of  iron,  and  iodic  acid. 
Cocaina  is  dissolved  by  fuming  nitric  and  by  concentrated 
nitric,  hydrochloric  and  sulphuric  acids  without  coloration ; 
when  heated,  only  the  latter  darkens  and  ultimately  blackens  it. 
A  characteristic  test  with  oxidizing  agents  has  not  been  observed. 
In  its  chemical  and  also  physical  properties,  it  resembles  atropia 
to  some  extent. 
The  atomic  weight  of  the  alkaloid  was  determined  from  the 
double  salt  with  chloride  of  gold,  and  was  found  from  the 
amorphous  compound  =288,  crystallized  from  hot  water  =1=280, 
crystallized  from  alcohol  =  288.  On  heating  the  dry  double 
salt,  a  sublimation  of  benzoic  acid  took  place,  the  first  observa- 
tion of  the  kind  of  any  known  alkaloid.  Ultimate  analysis 
showed  the  following  composition  : 
Calculation. 
C66.8 
66.8 
C  32 
192 
66-20 
H7-1 
7.5 
H20 
20 
6.90 
54 
N 
14 
4.83 
020.7 
20.3 
08 
64 
22.07 
100-0 
100.0 
C32H20NO, 
J  290 
100.00 
Vegetable  wax  from  coca  leaves.  The  precipitate  occasioned 
by  milk  of  lime  in  the  alcoholic  tincture  was  treated  with  cold 
ether,  which  on  evaporation  left  a  soft  sticky  brown  mass,  wholly 
soluble  in  boiling  alcohol,  from  which,  on  cooling,  a  white  body 
was  separated,  appearing  after  repeated  solution  in  hot  alcohol 
as  a  snow-white  granular  mass.  It  fuses  at  70^  C.  (167^^  F.),  is 
slowly  soluble  in  hot  alcohol,  readily  in  ether,  and  is  not  acted 
on  by  solutions  of  alkalies  or  acids.  By  elementary  analysis 
80.2  C,  13.4  H.  and  6.4  0.  were  obtained,  which  leads  to  the  em- 
pirical formula,  CggH^gO^.  The  composition  of  this  body,  called 
coca  wax  by  the  author,  closely  corresponds  with  that  of  Mul- 
der's grass  wax  and  syringa  wax. 
