OPTICAL  CHARACTERS  OF  CERTAIN  ALKALOIDS.  245 
-ance.  On  scratching  the  surface  the  part  became  distinctly  red. 
By  trituration  a  deep  orange-red  powder  was  obtained.  It  readily 
fuses  into  a  dark  red  liquid.  By  continuing  the  heat  it  is  sub- 
limed in  the  form  of  crystalline  or  plumose  laminae  of  a  yellowish- 
red  color. 
Triturated  or  shaken  with  water,  it  became  of  a  yellow  color, 
this  being  a  subiodide  or  oxyiodide  resulting  from  the  abstrac- 
tion of  iodine  by,  and  in  the  production  of  hydriodic  acid  with 
the  hydrogen  of,  the  water  ;  a  behaviour  analogous  to  that  of  the 
chloride  of  antimony  when  similarly  treated. 
The  form  of  administration  adopted  was  that  of  pills  ;  the  dose 
a  quarter  of  a  grain  to  a  grain.  As  an  outward  application  it 
was  used  suspended  by  means  of  mucilage. 
An  attempt  was  made  to  prepare  a  solution  similar  to  Dono- 
van's, substituting  antimony  for  arsenic.  As  anticipated,  the 
liquid  refused  to  retain  the  iodide  of  antimony.  It  is  probable, 
however,  that  with  an  excess  of  hydriodic  acid,  and  by  preparing 
a  much  stronger  solution,  a  liquid  of  this  kind  might  be  prepared  ; 
but  it  is  also  probable  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  make  a  mix- 
ture of  it  without  its  becoming  decomposed — London  Pharm. 
Jour.,  February,  1857. 
ON  THE  OPTICAL  CHARACTERS  OF  CERTAIN  ALKALOIDS  ASSO- 
CIATED WITH  QUININE,  AND  OF  THE  SULPHATES  OF  THEIR 
IODO-COMPOUNDS. 
By  William  Bird  Herapath,  in  a  letter  to  Professor  Stokes,  Sec.  R.  S. 
You  will  probably  recollect  that  I  sent  you  some  time  since  a 
small  portion  of  an  alkaloid,  which  at  that  time  was  called  quini- 
dine  in  Germany,  but  it  has  since  been  distinguished  from  it  and 
named  cinchonidine.  You  then  examined  it  for  epipolism  or 
fluorescence,  and  you  pronounced  the  opinion  that  it  possessed 
this  property  only  in  a  minor  degree,  and  you  imagined  that  this 
arose  from  the  presence  of  a  small  per-centage  of  a-quinine. 
I  have  since  obtained,  through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  J.  E.  How- 
ard, specimens  of  the  perfectly  pure  alkaloids  quinidine  and  cin- 
chonidine, and  find  that  quinidine,  which  I  can  now  identify  as 
the  j3-quinine  of  Von  Heijningen,  possesses  the  phenomenon  of 
fluorescence  or  epipolic  dispersion  as  powerfully  as  a-quinine  ; 
whilst  cinchonidine,  if  perfectly  pure,  is  devoid  of  it  altogether; 
