366 
A  NEW  CANADIAN  DYE. 
CHEMICAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  NARCOTINE,  AND  OF  ITS  DE- 
COMPOSITION. 
By  Henry  M,  Noad. 
Messrs.  Matthiessen  and  Foster  have  communicated  to  the 
Royal  Society  a  preliminary  notice  of  researches  into  this  sub- 
ject. They  obtained  from  Mr.  Morson  a  quantity  of  narcotine 
prepared  with  scrupulous  care  from  the  residues  which  had  ac- 
cumulated during  the  preparation  of  very  large  quantities  of 
codeine  and  morphine  from  opium  of  various  qualities  and 
from  various  sources.  The  results  of  all  their  analyses  agree 
best  with  the  formula  C^.H^gNOp  differing  slightly  from  that  of 
Wohler  and  Blyth,  v\z.,G.,^E.,-^.lsO^.  They  operated  on  several 
pounds  of  narcotine,  and  observed  nothing  to  warrant  the  an- 
nouncement made  by  Wertheim  and  Hinterberger,  that  there 
probably  exists  several  varieties  of  this  base.  To  cotarnine,  an- 
other base  obtained  by  the  oxidation  of  narcotine,  they  assign 
the  formula  C^oH^gNO^.  At  present  no  rational  formula  can  be 
assigned  to  narcotine,  though,  according  to  the  formula  adopted 
by  the  authors  for  it  and  cotarnine,  it  contains  the  elements  of 
of  the  latter  base  and  meconin,  thus  : — 
Narcotine.  Cotarnine.  Meconin. 
By  distilling  20  grains  of  narcotine  with  concentrated 
hydriodic  acid,  19  grains  of  pure  iodide  of  methyl  were  obtained, 
a  quantity  which  corresponds  as  nearly  as  could  be  expected  with 
three  atoms  of  iodide  of  methyl  for  one  atom  of  narcotine.  This  base 
contains  therefore  three  atoms  of  methyl  so  combined  as  to  be 
easily  separable;  and  it  seemed  to  the  authors  very  probable 
that  when  it  is  distilled  with  potash,  according  to  the  conditions 
of  the  experiment,  sometimes  pure  ammonia,  and  at  other  times 
methylamine,  OH^N,  dimethylamine,  C2H.N,  or  trimethylamine, 
CgHgN,  are  produced. — Chemist  and  Druggist,  May  15,  1861. 
A  NEW  CANADIAN  DYE. 
Professor  Lawson  has  prepared  a  new  dye  of  great  richness, 
in  the  Laboratory  of  Queen's  College,  Canada,  from  an  insect 
a  species  of  Coccus,  found  for  the  first  time  last  summer  on  a  tree 
