Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
March,  1884.  J 
The  Salts  of  Narcotine. 
155 
to  cause  a  certain  amount  of  decomposition  in  the  salt,  the  affinity 
between  the  base  and  acid  not  being  strong  enough  to  resist  the  action 
of  the  water.  Yet  this  affinity  is  sufficient  to  prevent  any  great 
decomposition,  such  as  we  have  in  the  case  of  the  acetate,  where  the 
addition  of  water  causes  an  almost  complete  precipitation  of  the  alka- 
loid. A  kind  of  equilibrium  is  established,  depending,  no  doubt,  on 
the  relative  masses  of  the  different  components.  When  a  portion  of  one 
of  these  is  removed,  as  narcotine  by  benzine,  the  equilibrium  is  dis- 
turbed and  rights  itself  by  a  little  more  decomposition,  and  so  on.  But 
it  is  not  necessary  to  have  the  salt  in  solution  in  order  to  remove  the 
base  by  an  appropriate  solvent.  So  weak  an  alkaloid  is  narcotine  that 
its  salts  are  decomposed,  to  some  extent,  by  such  compounds  as  ether 
and  "benzin,"  so  that  by  simply  rubbing,  up  the  dry  salts  with  one 
of  these  solvents,  an  amount  of  the  alkaloid  is  dissolved  out.  Having 
regard  to  all  these  facts,  and  to  what  is  known  otherwise  of  narco- 
tine and  of  opium,  we  are  led  to  the  conclusion  that  narcotine  is 
undoubtedly  an  alkaloid,  that  it  readily  forms  salts,  and  that  it  exists 
in  opium  as  meconate  (at  least  for  the  most  part).  It  is  no  uncommon 
occurrence  for  alkaloidal  salts  to  crystallize  w  ith  varying  proportions 
of  combined  water  according  to  circumstances.  I  have  observed  this 
in  the  case  of  narcotine  hydrochloride,  one  sample  giving  numbers 
indicating  three  molecules  of  water.  According  to  Beckett  and  Wright, 
the  hydrochloride  of  narcotine  forms  a  series  of  basic  salts  by  succes- 
sive crystallizations  from  hot  water.  Their  experiments  I  have  not 
repeated,  but  the  muriate  certainly  stands  one  recrystillization  without 
decomposition. 
Gmelin1  states,  on  the  authority  of  Bouchardat,  that  the  molecular 
rotatory  power  ot  narcotine  is  ■ — 1306°  or  — 151*4  for  the  red  ray-, 
but  that  it  is  not  ascertainable  with  exactness  on  account  of  the  slight 
solubility  of  the  alkaloid  in  alcohol  and  ether.  "  On  addition  of  acids 
it  acquires  a  rotatory  power  towards  the  right,  the  original  rotatory 
power  being  brought  back  by  neutralization  with  ammonia."  The 
rotatory  power  of  acid  solutions  of  narcotine  was  found  by  Bouchardat 
to  vary  according  to  the*  quantity  and  nature  of  the  acid.  More 
recently  Hesse  has  determined  the  specific  rotatory  power  of  narcotine 
with  the  following  results  : 2 
C  =  0-74 
[a]D    =  —185-0 
Alcohol. 
Chloroform  and 
alcohol. 
2 
—  191-5 
Chloroform 
2  and  5 
—  207-3 
"Handbook,"  xvi,  137. 
2  "Watts'  Diet.,"  viii,  1223. 
