NOTE  ON  ATROPIA.  227 
brilliant  white  rhombic  prisms,  half  an  inch  in  length,  very 
readily  soluble  in  water,  also  in  ordinary  alcohol,  and  scarcely 
in  ether.  From  their  watery  solution  they  deposit  in  form  of 
fernlike  aggregations,  have  an  acid  reaction  and  taste,  and  are 
the  hydrochlorate  of  the  new  base. 
On  drying  this  salt,  with  a  pulp  of  carbonate  of  baryta  and 
water,  over  the  water-bath,  and  then  extracting  with  boiling 
alcohol,  the  alkaloid  will  be  left  in  a  perfectly  pure  condition  on 
evaporating  the  alcoholic  solution,  as  a  white  mass  of  radiating 
crystals,  of  a  sharp  but  not  bitter  taste,  at  once  deliquescing  in 
the  air,  readily  soluble  in  alcohol,  nearly  insoluble  in  ether, 
fusing  and  decomposing  when  heated  in  a  tube,  and  completely 
destroyed  at  higher  temperatures. 
Besides  the  hydrochlorate  we  have  prepared  in  fine  crystals 
the  double  salts  with  the  chlorides  of  platinum  and  of  gold,  and 
the  likewise  crystallizable  and  very  readily  soluble,  in  part  also 
deliquescent  salts  with  sulphuric,  nitric,  chromic,  acetic  and 
oxalic  acids. 
We  have  as  yet  been  prevented  to  enter  more  fully  into  an 
analytical  investigation  of  lycina  and  its  salts,  and  shall  be 
unable  to  do  so  for  some  time  to  come.  For  these  reasons  we 
have  thought  it  best  to  communicate  the  above  first  results,  the 
more  as  we  are  of  the  opinion,  that  the  mode  of  extracting  the 
alkaloid  which  we  have  delineated  will  lead  to  the  discovery  of 
other  similar  ones  which  have  hitherto  been  overlooked  on  ac- 
count of  their  solubility. — (Annalen  der  Chemie  u.  Pharmacie, 
ii.  Supplement— Band,  S.  383,  1363.)  F.  F.  M. 
NOTE  ON  ATROPIA.t 
By  Dr.  E  Pfeiffer. 
While  engaged  in  the  summer  of  1861,  together  with  my 
teacher,  Prof.  Ludwig,  at  Jena,  in  going  over  the  reactions  of 
some  alkaloids  which  in  many  forensic  cases  serve  almost  as  sole 
indications  of  their  presence,  we  noticed  the  peculiar  pungent 
benzoic  acid  odor  given  off  by  atropia  during  its  combustion.* 
*  The  same  has  been  observed  by  Niemann  in  the  combustion  of  the 
double  chloride  of  atropia  and  gold.  (Dissertation  uber  eine  neue  organisehe 
Base  in  den  Coca  blcettern;  Gocttingen,  I860.) 
f  Translated  for  this  Journal  by  Prof,  Mayer,  of  New  York, 
