352 
Notes  and  News. 
Am,  Jour.  Ptaarm. 
June,  1896. 
NOTES  AND  NEWS. 
Prof.  Francis  Hemm  has  been  elected  to  fill  the  position  of  professor  of 
chemistry  in  the  Missouri  Medical  College,  St.  Louis,  vacant  on  account  of  the 
death  of  Dr.  Charles  O.  Curtman.  Professor  Hemm  at  present  holds  the  posi- 
tion of  director  of  the  pharmaceutical  laboratories  in  the  St.  Louis  College  of 
Pharmacy. 
Dr.  B.  H.  Paul  and  A.  J.  Cownley  have  recently  contributed  an  article  on  the 
comparative  value  of  Brazilian  and  Columbian  ipecacuanha.1 
The  question  as  to  the  relative  medicinal  value  of  the  two  kinds  of  ipecac 
now  met  with  in  commerce  has  acquired  greater  importance  since  the  pharma- 
cological observations  conducted  by  Dr.  Wild2  have  shown  that  there  is  a  well- 
marked  difference  between  the  effects  produced  by  the  two  bases,  emetine  and 
cephaeline,  which  are  present  in  these  drugs  in  different  relative  proportions. 
According  to  Dr.  Wild's  observations,  emetine  is  a  good  expectorant,  but 
cephaeline  does  not  appear  to  be  equal  to  it  in  this  respect,  while  on  the  con- 
trary, cephaeline  is  undoubtedly  superior  as  an  emetic. 
The  authors  determined  the  mixed  alkaloids  by  extracting  the  drug  with 
amylic  alcohol,  removing  them  from  this  solvent  with  dilute  sulphuric  acid, 
adding  to  the  latter  excess  of  ammonia  and  shaking  out  with  ether.  The  alka- 
loids were  separated  by  dissolving  in  hydrochloric  acid,  adding  sodium  hydrate 
in  excess  and  shaking  with  ether. 
The  separated  ether  solution  was  acidified  and  again  treated  with  sodium 
hydrate,  this  operation  being  repeated  until  the  cephaeline  was  sufficiently 
removed,  which  was  ascertained  by  the  absence  of  precipitate  on  adding  ammo- 
nium chloride  to  the  alkaline  liquor.  After  the  separation  was  effected,  the 
ether  solution  of  emetine  was  evaporated  and  the  residue  titrated  with  semi- 
normal  hydrochloric  acid  (i  c.c.  semi-normal  HC1  =  0*124  emetine). 
From  the  alkaline  soda  liquid  cephaeline  was  precipitated,  by  the  addition 
of  ammonium  chloride,  and  shaken  out  with  ether.  The  residue  left  after 
evaporating  the  ether  was  titrated  as  above  (1  c.c.  semi-normal  HC1  =  0-117 
cephaeline). 
From  a  careful  examination  of  selected  samples  of  Brazilian  and  Colum- 
bian ipecac,  the  authors  have  obtained  the  following  results  : 
Brazilian. 
Columbian. 
Root. 
Stem. 
i-45 
ri8 
0-89 
0-52 
o"59 
1-25 
Third  base   
0*04 
0*03 
o-o6 
Total  
2  01 
• 
i-8o 
2*20 
1  Pharmaceutical  Journal,  56,  321. 
-  Pharmaceutical  Journal,  55,  435. 
