340  Criticism  of  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia,     {A\nJgZt'  imlm' 
sented  by  the  formula,  C17H23N03,  and  thought  it  to  be  isomeric 
with  hyoscyamine  and  atropine.  He  called  it  "  hyoscin,"  as  the 
compound  obtained  by  Reichardt  and  Hohn  was  then  thought  to  be 
identical  with  tropin,  a  decomposition  product  of  hyoscyamine.  In 
1888,  E.  Schmidt  and  Henschke5  obtained  an  alkaloid  from  the  root 
of  Scopolia  japonica,6  which,  from  the  analysis  and  properties  of  its 
aurichloride,  they  concluded  was  identical  with  the  "  hyoscin  "  of 
Ladenburg.  A  year  later,  Bender7-  isolated  hyoscyamine  and  what 
he  thought  was  a  new  crystalline  base  from  the  root  of  Scopolia 
atropoides.  A  quantity  of  this  crystalline  base  was  sent  to  E.  Schmidt 
for  analysis.  Bender  describes  the  properties  of  this  alkaloid  as 
found  by  Schmidt  under  the  name  "  scopclm.'1  The  analysis  of 
the  product  led  Schmidt  to  review  carefully  his  former  work  on  the 
base  obtained  from  Scopolia  japonica,  with  the  result  that  he  found 
the  composition  to  be  C17H21N048  instead  of  C17H23N03,  and  that 
it  was  identical  with  the  substance  received  from  Bender.  He  gave 
it  the  name  "  scopolamine'  Furthermore,  Schmidt  succeeded  in 
obtaining  this  base,  C17H21N04,  from  several  other  solanaceous 
plants  and  also  from  commercial  hyoscine  hydrobromide,  which 
was  then  being  prepared  by  the  firm  of  E.  Merck.  In  fact,  a  base 
having  the  formula  C17H23N03  and  corresponding  to  Ladenburg's 
"  hyoscin  "  could  never  again  be  isolated  from  the  mother-liquor 
resulting  in  the  crystallization  of  hyoscyamine,  its  absence  being 
conclusively  proven  by  L.  Merck9  in  1897. 
During  the  period  of  fifteen  years  following  the  work  of  Bender, 
the  literature  contains  a  considerable  number  of  publications  which 
tend  to  prove  or  disprove  the  identity  of  scopolamine  and  hyoscine, 
5  Arch.  d.  Pharm.  (1888),  226,  p.  185. 
6  Langaard,  in  1880,  reported  the  isolation  of  two  alkaloids  from  the 
root  of  Scopolia  japonica,  which  he  named  "  scopoleine "  and  "  rotoine " 
respectively. — Pharm.  Jonrn.  (1881),  n,  p.  10. 
Three  years  later,  Eykman,  working  with  the  same  root,  reported  the 
presence  of  but  one  alkaloid,  to  which  he  also  gave  the  name  "  scopolein." 
The  base  isolated  according  to  the  method  of  Eykman  was  being  prepared  and 
marketed  by  Merck  of  Darmstadt  and  Schuchardt  of  Gurlitz  as  early  as 
1888.  Upon  analysis,  Schmidt  found  the  product  to  be  a  mixture  of  "  hyoscin  " 
(Ladenburg),  hyoscyamine,  and  atropine. — Arch.  d.  Pharm.  (1888),  226,  p. 
187. 
7  Chcm.  Zeitung  (1890),  p.  805. 
8  Arch.  d.  Pharm.  (1892),  220,  p.  207. 
8  Journ.  Soc.  Chcm.  Industr.  (1897),  T6,  p.  515. 
