ON  THE  ACTIVE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  STRYCHNACEiE.  215 
ON  THE  ACTIVE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  STRYCHNACEiE. 
By  Ferdinamd  F.  Mayer,  of  New  York. 
In  taking  up  this  subject  various  points  have  presented  them- 
selves for  consideration,  several  of  which  are  to  be  mentioned 
now,  while  others  must  necessarily,  and  by  our  leave,  remain 
over  for  future  consideration.  I  have  thought  it  best  to  confine 
myself  at  present  to  some  remarks  on  the  knowledge  we  possess 
of  the  active  principles  of  the  Strychnaceae ;  then,  as  to  their 
quantitative  determination  pure,  and  in  the  preparations  officinal 
in  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  ;  and  though  leaving  the  subject  in- 
complete, these  contributions  are  submitted  as  answering  the 
main  points  contained  in  the  query. 
The  literature,  medicinal,  pharmaceutical,  and  chemical,  of 
the  drugs  derived  from  this  family,  is  by  no  means  as  extensive 
as  that  of  opium  and  of  bark,  nor  is  our  knowledge  of  their  ac- 
tive principles  as  accurate  as  might  be  expected  or  desired. 
These  active  principles  are  supposed  to  be  represented  by  two 
or  three  alkaloids,  wThich,  named  in  the  order  of  discovery,  are 
strychnia,  brucia  and  igasuria.  Pelletier  and  Caventou,  in 
1818,  discovered  in  the  Ignatia  seed  a  bitter  alkaloid  which  they 
named  Vauqueline,  in  honor  of  the  great  pharmaceutist ;  this 
name  Bucher,  sen.,  considered  inappropriate,  and  proposed  in 
place  of  it,  Strychnin,  which  it  thenceforth  retained;  Tetanin 
was  suggested  for  it  by  Magendie.  Pelletier  and  Caventou  like- 
wise found  this  alkaloid  in  nux  vomica  and  bois  de  couleuvre, 
snakewood,  lignum  colubrinum  from  Strychnos  colubrinum. 
Shortly  after  they  noticed  the  existence  of  a  different  alkaloid  in 
the  bark  of  Strychnos  nux  vomica,  then  known  as  false  angustura 
bark,  and  supposed  to  be  that  of  Brucea  anti-dysenterica ;  hence 
its  name  of  Brucia,  in  place  of  which,  Geiger  once  proposed 
Caniramin  (canis,  dog,  ira,  rage.)  Desnoix,  lastly,  noticed  a  crys- 
talline deposite  in  the  alkaline  liquor  from  which  strychnia  and 
brucia  had  been  precipitated,  and  called  the  same  Igasurin. 
Schiitzenberger  afterwards  confirmed  that  this  alkaloid  concurred 
in  many  properties  with  brucia,  but  found  it  was  itself  a  mixture 
of  no  less  than  nine  different  bases,  varying  slightly  in  the  per 
centage  of  carbon,  hydrogen  and  oxygen,  and  water  of  crystalli- 
