376 
Alkaloids  of  Angustura  Bark. 
j  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\       July,  1884. 
ride  of  the  base  are  but  sparingly  soluble  in  water ;  the  acetate  is  much 
more  soluble,  but  the  solution  is  decomposed  if  largely  diluted ;  the 
tartrate  dissolves  readily.  The  platinochloride  was  obtained  as  an 
orange-yellow  crystalline  precipitate. 
When  treated  with  potassium  hydroxide,  cusparine  splits  up,  yield- 
ing a  new  alkaloid  and  the  potassium  salt  of  an  acid  which  seems  to  be 
an  aromatic  derivative ;  the  acid  is  sparingly  soluble  and  crystallizes 
readily.  The  alkaloid  crystallizes  from  alcohol,  in  which  it  is  very 
sparingly  soluble,  in  minute,  very  brilliant,  colorless  needles ;  it  decom- 
poses at  250°  without  melting.  An  attempt  to  decompose  the  cuspa- 
rine in  a  similar  manner  by  the  action  of  hydrochloric  acid  failed,  as 
it  began  to  carbonize  even  at  100°. 
In  the  mother-liquors  from  which  the  cusparine  was  originally  pre- 
cipitated as  sulphate  or  oxalate,  another  alkaloid  is  found,  to  which 
the  authors  have  given  the  name  galipe'ine,  C20H21NO3.  The  free  base 
crystallizes  from  light  petroleum  in  white  needles  melting  at  115*5°. 
It  may  be  obtained  in  well-formed  transparent  prisms  from  its  solution 
in  ether  or  alcohol.  All  the  salts  of  this  alkaloid  are  more  soluble 
than  those  of  cusparine ;  several  of  them  are  of  a  magnificent  greenish 
yellow  like  uranium  salts.  The  sulphate  crystallizes  in  large  prisms 
with  7  mols.  H20,  which  it  loses  in  part  on  exposure  to  the  air ;  it 
melts  at  15°,  and  at  100°  undergoes  decomposition,  yielding  the  sul- 
phate of  another  alkaloid  and  a  crystalline  nitrogenous  substance 
which  melts  at  196°.  The  platinochloride  crystallizes  in  prisms  with 
a  triangular  base. 
Besides  cusparine  and  galipei'ne,  the  authors  have  found  another 
alkaloid  which  melts  at  180°,  and  is  very  sparingly  soluble  in  ether. 
It  crystallizes  from  alcohol  and  furnishes  salts,  the  solutions  of  which 
have  a  blue  fluorescence. 
The  property  these  alkaloids  have  of  being  transformed  into  other 
alkaloids  with  simultaneous  formation  of  acids,  is  interesting,  and  may 
throw  some  light  on  the  constitution  of  vegetable  alkaloids  in  general. 
— Jour.  Chem.  Soc,  March,  1884,  p.  341,  from  Gazzetta,  vol.  13. 
Nicotine  and  Alcohol  Antidotal  to  Strychnine.— Prof.  Haugh- 
ton,  of  Dublin,  relates  a  case  of  strychnine  poisoning  which  was  treated  by 
drop  doses  of  nicotine  in  whisky  punch  every  half  hour.  At  the  second 
dose  the  paroxyms  became  less  violent  and  the  muscles  of  the  abdomen 
softer. — Med.  Annals. 
