Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
Nov.,  1884.  J 
Homoquinine  of  Cuprea  Bark. 
575 
THE  HOMOQUINIKE  OF  CUPREA  BAKK. 
By  B.  H.  Paul  and  A.  J.  Cownley. 
The  very  important  contribution  to  the  chemical  history  of  the 
remarkable  substance  occurring  in  cuprea  bark,  which  has  been  fur- 
nished by  Dr.  Hesse  in  the  paper  published  in  the  "  Annalen  "  for 
July  last/  well  entitles  him  to  the  gratitude  of  those  who  first  recog- 
nized its  individuality,  and  as  among  that  number,  we  desire  to  express 
our  sense  of  obligation  to  him  for  the  use  he  has  made  of  his  superior 
opportunities  for  investigating  this  subject.  Certainly  the  substance 
in  question  is  deserving  of  some  consideration,  for  in  addition  to  its 
own  peculiarities,  and  the  fact  that  it  was  independently  and  simulta- 
neously discovered  by  four  distinct  sets  of  observers,  it  has  been  sub- 
jected more  than  the  common  run  of  "  new  bodies  "  to  the  struggle  for 
existence,  which  is  perhaps  the  best  test  of  fitness.  In  the  first  place, 
Dr.  Hesse  is  responsible,  perhaps,  for  the  non-publication  of  the  obser- 
vation made  by  his  colleague  Mr.  Tod,  in  June,  1881,  that  cuprea  bark 
contained  a  hitherto  unknown  alkaloid,  and  he  was  certainly  disposed 
to  doubt  the  distinct  nature  of  the  crystalline  substance  we  obtained 
from  that  bark  until  we  placed  a  small  specimen  of  it  in  his  hands  for 
examination.  Dr.  Kerner  and  Dr.  De  Vrij  pronounced  the  crystals  of 
homoquinine  sent  to  one  of  them  by  Mr.  David  Howard  to  be  a  mix- 
ture of  quinine  and  cinchonidine,  and  lastly,  Messrs.  C.  H.  Wood  and 
Barrett  illustrated  the  dangers  attending  the  use  of  the  imagination  in 
scientific  matters  by  putting  forward  a  suggestion  implying  that  the 
substance,  which  indeed,  Dr.  Hesse  infers,  they  do  not  seem  ever  to 
have  seen,  might  be  a  compound  of  quinine  with  quinidine.  Never- 
theless, homoquinine  has  survived,  though  the  difficulty  of  obtaining 
a  supply  of  material  for  investigation  has  hitherto  been  a  serious  obstacle 
with  those  who  would  otherwise  have  studied  it  more  completely. 
Dr.  Hesse  has  long  since  recognized  the  fact  that  cuprea  bark  con- 
tains a  peculiar  crystallizable  alkaloid,2  and  he  has  now,  in  the  most 
practical  manner,  made  amends  for  his  former  disbelief  by  giving  an 
elaborate  history  of  this  substance  and  its  compounds,  which  places  it 
beyond  question.  At  the  same  time,  however,  we  regret  to  find  he 
has  done  this  with  some  degree  of  hankering  after  the  opinion  he  first 
1  A  translation  of  this  paper  appeared  in  the  "  Pharmaceutical  Journal  " 
for  August  23,  p.  141,  and  was  reprinted  in  "  Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,"  Oct.,  p.  515. 
2  "Berichte,"  xvi,  60,  and  "Pharm.  Journ."  Feb.,  1883,  p.  685. 
