Amju°nue1!'i?913arm'}  Specimens  of  Aconitine.  297 
which  melts  at  2700.  Methylcytisine  melts  at  1  340  ;  the  platino- 
chloride  crystallizes  with  2^  mols.  H20,  and  the  aurochloride  melts 
at  1960.  Ethylcytisine  is  a  yellow  liquid,  and  yields  a  platino- 
chloride  which  crystallizes  with  1  mol.  H20.  Magalhaes'  dimethyl- 
cytisine  forms  a  platinochloride  crystallizing  with  2^  mols.  H20, 
and  gives  rise  to  dimethylcytisine  methiodide  when  heated  on  the 
water-bath  with  methyl  iodide ;  the  methiodide  decomposes  on 
boiling  with  concentrated  aqueous  potassium  hydroxide  with  the 
evolution  of  trimethylamine,  whilst  chloroform  extracts  from  the 
cold  solution  a  base  giving  an  amorphous,  yellow  platinochloride, 
{C10H13NO2)2,H2?tCl6.  On  distilling  cytisine  with  soda  lime,  a  base, 
C9H13N,  probably  a  pyridine  derivative,  is  obtained  ;  this  is,  per- 
haps, related  to  the  base  C10H13N2O,  just  mentioned.  The  alkaloid 
gives  no  evidence  of  the  presence  of  the  group  CO,  in  that  it  does 
not  react  with  phenylhydrazine. 
The  precise  constitution  of  cytisine  is  still  obscure,  but  its 
behavior  towards  methyl  iodide,  acetic  anhydride  and  nitrous  acid 
shows  that  one  of  its  nitrogen  atoms  is  in  secondary  combination  ; 
the  second  nitrogen  atom  is  either  in  tertiary  or  quaternary  com- 
bination. That  the  oxygen  atom  exists  neither  in  the  form  of 
methoxyl  nor  hydroxyl  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  methylcytisine 
does  not  yield  an  acetyl  derivative.  The  research  is  being  con- 
tinued. 
THE  COMPOSITION  OF  SOME  COMMERCIAL  SPECIMENS 
OF  ACONITINE. 
By  Wyndham  R.  Dunstan  and  Francis  H.  Carr, 
Assistant  in  the  Research  Laboratory  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society. 
In  our  search  for  the  most  readily  available  source  from  which  to 
obtain  pure  aconitine,  we  examined  a  number  of  commercial  speci- 
mens of  this  alkaloid,  English  and  foreign.  For  eleven  of  these  speci- 
mens (1— 1 1)  we  are  indebted  to  Dr.  J.  W.  L.  Thudichum,  who  col- 
lected them  some  years  ago,  and  kindly  offered  them  to  us  for 
examination.  Dr.  Thudichum  found  that  these  specimens  varied 
enormously  in  toxic  power,  many  being  inert,  others  more  or  less 
poisonous,  whilst  only  one  or  two  were  highly  toxic.  The  remainder 
of  the  specimens  have  been  purchased  during  the  past  two  years. 
The  process  employed  in  examining  them  was  essentially  that 
described  in  connection  with  the  separation  of  isaconitine  from  the 
