Am\n»Ts[;  iP9i4rm'}     Criticism  of  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia,  341 
some  of  which  also  tend  to  show  the  desirability  of  establishing  the 
usage  of  the  term  scopolamine  in  preference  to  hyoscine,  or  vice 
versa.  The  controversy  was  carried  on  principally  by  O.  Hesse  and 
E.  Schmidt,  with  an  occasional  opinion  from  others. 
In  1892,  when  Hesse10  published  his  results  on  the  identification 
of  the  Solanaceous  alkaloids,  he  agreed  with  Schmidt  that  the  com- 
position of  "hyoscin"  (Ladenburg)  should  be  represented  by  the 
formula  C17H21N04  and  that  it  was  identical  with  "  scopolamin," 
but  objected  to  the  introduction  of  the  latter  term,  as  the  hydro- 
bromide  had  already  been  marketed  for  ten  years  under  the  name  of 
"  hyoscinhydrobromid."  Later,  however,  Hesse  concluded  that  the 
two  were  not  identical,  as  4k  hyoscin  "  was  known  to  be  lsevo rotatory, 
and  he  succeeded  in  isolating  a  quantity  of  an  optically  inactive  base 
from  commercial  scopolamine  hydrobromide.  This  led  him  to  be- 
lieve that  "  scopolamin  "  was  a  mixture  of  "  hyoscin  "  and  the  new 
base  to  which  he  gave  the  name  "  atroscin."11  As  early  as  1890, 
Schmidt12  observed  that  the  hydrobromide  was  laevorotatory.  He 
also  discovered  that  solutions  of  the  active  scopolamine  hydro- 
bromide could  be  rendered  optically  inactive  by  the  addition  of 
small  quantities  of  sodium  or  potassium  hydroxide.  This  change 
he  attributed  to  the  conversion  of  the  optically  active  base  into  an 
inactive  isomer,13  which  he  later  isolated  and  called  "  inactive  scopo- 
lamin." The  identity  of  "  atroscin  "  (Hesse)  with  the  latter  was 
conclusively  proven  by  the  work  of  Gadamer14  and  Kuntz-Krause15 
respectively. 
The  alkaloid  represented  by  the  formula,  C17H21N04,  was  first 
placed  upon  the  market  in  the  form  of  the  hydrobromide  by  Merck 
of  Darmstadt.  It  was  then  being  prepared  from  the  base  isolated 
from  the  seeds  of  Hyoscyamus  niger  and  was  sold  under  the  name 
of  "  hyoscinhydrobromide."  About  1894,  shortly  after  the  work  of 
Bender  and  Schmidt,  scopolia  root  became  recognized  as  a  source 
of  supply.  However,  the  hydrobromide,  when  prepared  from  the 
base  obtained  from  the  latter  source,  was  marketed  as  "  skopolamin- 
10  Ann.  d.  Chcm.  (1892),  271,  p.  111. 
11  Bcr.  d.  deutsch.  chcm.  Ges.  (1896),  29,  p.  1781.  The  term  "atroscin" 
has  never  received  recognition  by  other  investigators. 
12  Arch  d.  Pharm.  (1892),  230,  p.  207. 
13  Ibid.  (1894),  232,  p.  409- 
"Ibid.  (1898),  236,  p.  382. 
ir'Journ.  f.  prakt.  Chcm.  (1910),  64,  p.  569. 
