Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
November,  1907.  J 
Alkaloids  and  their  Derivatives. 
537 
cent,  which  is  stated  to  be  due  principally  to  the  contraction  in  the 
exports  of  pepper,  which  fell  off  9,499,000  pounds,  valued  at 
$1,000,000,  The  export  of  ginger  declined  in  value  §95,000.  This 
article,  however,  brought  a  higher  price  during  the  last  year,  sell- 
ing on  an  average  at  nearly  5  cents  per  pound.  The  export  of 
chillies  increased  during  the  year  22.37  per  cent,  in  quantity  and 
12.34  per  cent,  in  value. — Daily  Consular  and  Trade  Reports,  Octo- 
ber 12,  1907. 
A  PLEA  FOR  UNIFORMITY  IN  THE  NOMENCLATURE  OF 
ALKALOIDS  AND  THEIR  DERIVATIVES.1 
In  a  letter  to  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal  (August  10,  1907,  p.  233), 
Dr.  Gordon  Sharp,  of  Leeds,  writes  as  follows: 
Some  years  ago  it  was  the  custom  in  Great  Britain  to  make  all 
alkaloids  and  their  derivatives  end  in  "  ine,"  while  glucosides,  resins, 
and  principles  not  alkaloids,  were  made  to  end  in  "  in."  Now  all  is 
hopelessly  mixed  up,  and  no  order  is  observed — just  as  is  the  case 
in  German  literature.  If  the  Germans  send  us  over  a  new  deriva- 
tive of  an  old  alkaloid,  editors,  chemists,  physiologists,  and  pharma- 
cologists (not  to  speak  of  the  downtrodden  clinician)  seem  to  think 
it  should  be  written  as  our  Teuton  friends  think.  To  take  a  few 
examples :  In  the  same  sentence  I  read  eucaine  and  cocain  (both 
alkaloids)  and  heroin  and  dionine,  two  morphine  derivatives  which 
came  to  us  from  Stockman  and  Dott,  but  neglected  till  an  enterpris- 
ing German  firm  took  them  up.  To  continue,  the  more  or  less 
pure  ergot  alkaloids  are  written,  cornutin-Keller,  cornutine-Kobert, 
chrysotoxin,  secalintoxin,  sphaceletoxin,  ergotoxine,  hydroergotinin. 
I  could  go  on  multiplying  the  list,  but  it  is  needless.  It  would  be 
much  simpler  if  investigators  paid  attention  to  the  old  rule,  so  that 
when  one  came  across  a  new  name  ending  in  "  ine  "  we  should  know 
that  it  was  alkaloidal  in  nature. 
1  The  practice  does  not  seem  to  be  any  better  in  the  United  States,  an  instance 
having  recently  come  to  notice  where  the  author  in  the  same  paper  used  the 
erminations  "in"  and  "ine"  for  the  same  alkaloid. — Editor. 
