380       Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.  {AmAignli,\m>rm' 
with  fuming  nitric  acid,  and  the  residue  treated  with  potassium 
hydrate. 
The  theoretical  value  of  these  reactions  was  the  subject  of  a  paper 
read  by  KunzKrause  before  the  "  Deutsche  Naturforscher  Versamm- 
lung."  He  applied  the  second  reaction  to  seventeen  natural  alka- 
loids and  to  five  heterocyclic  bases,  and  found,  of  these,  only  atro- 
pine and  hyoscyamine  gave  the  characteristic  color.  Papaverine,  it 
is  true,  does  give  a  color;  but  it  is  only  a  transient  red.  Hence,  the 
reaction  is  certainly  of  great  value  for  toxicological  purposes. 
In  his  investigation  of  Vitali's  reaction,  the  writer  discovered  an 
interesting  phenomenon — that  when  the  alkaline  and  colored  atro- 
pine residue  was  covered  with  alcohol  and  allowed  to  stand,  the 
unmistakable  odor  of  methyl  carbylamine,  CH3NC,  was  developed. 
The  same  odor  was  detected  after  similar  treatment  of  eight  of 
the  seventeen  alkaloids,  hyoscyamine,  hydrastine,  hydrastinine, 
morphine,  codeine,  narcotine,  nicotine  and  cocaine.  Under  similar 
conditions,  papaverine  develops  a  musk  odor,  and  veratrine  first 
smells  of  coniine  and  afterwards  of  new-mown  hay. 
A  careful  comparison  of  the  accepted  structural  formulae  of  the 
nine  alkaloids,  giving  the  carbylamine  odor,  was  next  made,  and  it 
was  found  that  the  point  of  similarity  was  that  each  alkaloid  con- 
tained the  group 
=CH>N-CH'- 
Of  the  synthetic  bases,  two  gave  the  carbylamine  odor  and  these 
contained  the  groups 
=C(CH3)>NCH3  and  Zc(CH3)  >NCH* 
respectively. 
On  the  other  hand,  caffeine,  which  contains  three  similar  methyl- 
amide  groups, 
3^q>NCH3,  ~£°>NCH3  and  =^H>CNH3, 
does  not  give  the  reaction. 
The  deductions  of  the  author  are  that  a  carbylamine  odor  devel- 
oped in  Vitali's  reaction  indicates  one  of  the  three  groupings  first 
mentioned — a  most  valuable  diagnosis,  if  true.  H.  V.  A. 
