Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ") 
May,  1885.  J 
Experiments  on  Strychnine. 
253 
Dr.  Armstrong,  who  I  believe  some  years  ago  had  a  similar  object  in 
view,  I  decided  to  employ  its  bromo-derivative,  as  likely  to  give  better 
results,  and  in  order  that  at  the  same  time  the  physiological  action  of 
this  compound  might  be  examined.  This,  as  a  subsequent  paper  will 
show,  has  been  done  by  Dr.  Lauder  Brunton. 
The  halogen  compounds  of  strychnine  have  been  already  incom- 
pletely investigated,  Herapath  and  Tilden  having  prepared  some  iodine 
compounds,  and  Laurent  those  of  chlorine  and  bromine. 
Laurent  observed  that  when  bromine  is  added  to  a  strong  solution  of 
strychnine  hydrochloride  and  the  resinous  precipitate  is  filtered  off,  the 
solution  yields  to  ammonia  a  precipitate  of  bromostrychnine,  crystal- 
lizing from  spirit  and  forming  a  crystalline  hydrochloride.  As  I  had 
reason  for  thinking  that  nearly  all  the  alkaloid  would  be  precipitated 
as  resin  if  this  method  were  followed,  I  attempted,  but  without  success, 
to  prepare  bromostrychnine  by  adding  a  solution  of  bromine  in  chloro- 
form to  solution  of  strychi-ine  in  the  same  solvent.  I  found,  how- 
ever, that  by  adding  bromine- water  to  the  hydrochloride  dissolved 
in  50  to  100  times  its  weight  of  water,  no  considerable  proportion  of 
resin  was  formed  till  two  equivalent  proportions  of  bromine  had  been 
added.  From  this  solution,  alkalis  threw  down  a  solid,  insoluble  in 
water,  and  crystallizing  beautifully  from  warm  alcohol ;  this  evi- 
dently corresponded  with  Laurent's  compound.  There  was  no  diffi- 
culty in  completely  converting  strychnine  into  this  substance. 
A  portion  was  crystallized  in  two  fractions.  0'2626  gram  of  the 
first  fraction  gave  0*1188  gram  silver  bromide,  equivalent  to  19* 23 
per  cent,  of  bromine;  0'3070  gram  of  the  second  fraction  gave  0*1383 
gram  of  AgBr,  equivalent  to  19*15  of  bromine. 
Theory  for  C2iH2iBrN202  requires  19*37  per  cent,  bromine. 
The  platinochloride  of  this  compound  is  not  quite  stable ;  its  color 
slightly  changes  during  drying.  A  specimen  was  examined,  however, 
and  was  found  to  contain  17*2  per  cent.  Pt,  as  against  16*03  required 
by  the  above  formula. 
The  crystallography  of  bromostrychnine  is  given  in  a  separate  note 
by  Mr.  H.  A.  Miers.  The  crystals  are  rectangular  tables  of  the 
rhombic  system  ;  a:b:c  =  1*45907  : 1 :  1*19457. 
I  found  bromostrychnine  to  be  fairly  soluble  in  cold,  and  more  so  in 
hot  alcohol ;  also  soluble  in  chloroform.  It  unites  very  readily  with 
methyl  iodide,  the  methiodide  separating  in  crystals  when  methyl 
iodide  is  added  to  an  alcoholic  solution  of  monobromostrychnine. 
