156 
Cinchonamine. 
j  Am.  Jour.  Pharni. 
\      March,  1884. 
It  may  be  thought  that  these  numbers  do  not  agree  very  well,  but 
it  is  now  understood  that  the  "  specific  rotatory  power "  may  vary 
according  to  the  nature  and  proportion  of  the  solvent  used ;  even 
although  that  solvent  has  no  action  by  itself  on  polarized  light.  All 
that  we  obtain  in  such  cases  is  an  apparent  rotatory  power  which  may 
differ  widely  from  that  of  the  pure  substance.  It  is,  therefore,  neces- 
sary to  state  the  solvent  and  the  percentage  of  substance  dissolved 
therein,  as  the  angle  of  rotation  does  not  vary  directly  as  the  amount 
of  substance,  when  the  latter  is  in  solution. 
Before  knowing  of  Hesse's  work  on  the  subject,  I  determined  the 
specific  rotatory  power  of  narcotine  dissolved  in  "  benzin,"  the  solu- 
tion containing  1*59  per  cent.  My  friend  Mr.  W.  Peddie,  Assistant  to 
the  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  in  the  University,  kindly  made  a 
duplicate  determination  for  me,  he  using  a  Duboscq's  polariscope  with 
compensator,  and  I  using  a  Jellet.  Our  results  are  practically  identical 
and  give  the  value  [«]d  =  —  229°.  It  was,  of  course,  ascertained  in 
the  first  place  that  the  benzin  did  not  affect  appreciably  the  polarized 
light.  I  can  confirm  Bouchardat's  observation  that  acids  change  the 
polarization  from  left  to  right,  a  solution  of  narcotine  in  dilute  oxalic 
acid  giving  =  +  62. — Pharm.  Jour,  and  Trans.,  Jan.  26,  1884, 
p.  582. 
CINCHONAMINE. 
By  Arnatjd. 
Cinchonamine,  C19H24N20,  (See  "Am.  Jour.  Phar.,"  1882,  p.  76)  exists 
in  Remijia  purdiana,  but  is  not  contained  in  R.  pednnculata,  which 
contains  quinine.  To  extract  cinchonamine,  the  finely  powdered  bark 
is  exhausted  with  very  dilute  sulphuric  acid,  the  solution  filtered,  boiled, 
and  precipitated  with  milk  of  lime.  The  precipitate  is  dried  on  porous 
tiles,  and  digested  with  boiling  ether.  The  ethereal  solution  is 
decanted  from  undissolved  resinous  substances,  etc.,  washed  with  dilute 
hydrochloric  acid,  which  removes  the  cinchonamine,  and  the  acid  solu- 
tion of  cinchonamine  hydrochloride  is  evaporated  to  crystallization. 
The  hydrochloride  is  dissolved  in  boiling  dilute  acid,  filtered  through 
animal  charcoal,  and  recrystallized.  The  free  base  is  obtained  by  add- 
ing ammonia  to  a  solution  of  the  hydrochloride,  and  crystallizing  the 
alkaloid  from  boiling  ether.  An  alcoholic  solution  of  the  alkaloid  is 
, dextrogyrate,  its  rotatory  power  being  [a]D  =  +  122'2°.  Accord- 
