ON  THE  SUBLIMATION  OF  THE  ALKALOIDS. 
Chloride,  C23H25N  0.,  H  CI  +  5  H20. 
Platinum  salt,  (C23H25.N  05,  H  Cl)2'PtCl4. 
Mr.  Brady,  of  Newcastle,  writes  in  regard  to  the  crystalline 
forms  assumed  by  cryptopia  :] 
"  The  alkaloid  itself  has  much  better  defined  crystalline  forms 
than  any  of  its  compounds.  Its  primary  form  is  a  hexagonal 
prism,  and  it  is  obtained  in  this  condition  if  crystallized  slowly 
in  a  tube  from  its  alcoholic  solution.  But  if  a  warm  alcoholic 
solution  be  allowed  to  evaporate  on  a  slip  of  glass,  it  takes  the 
shape  of  very  thin  hexagonal  plates,  the  minute  crystals  resem- 
bling uric-acid  lozenges."—  Lond.  Pliarm.  Journ.,  April  and 
June,  1867. 
ON  THE  SUBLIMATION  OF  THE  ALKALOIDS. 
By  William  A.  Guy,  M.D.,  F.R.S.,  F.R.C.P., 
Professor  of  Forensic  Medicine,  King's  College,  London,  etc. 
In  the  year  1864,  Dr.  A.  Helwig,  of  Mayence,  first  proposed 
the  sublimation  of  the  alkaloids  as  a  test  and  diagnostic,*  and 
more  recently  (in  1865  f)  he  published  a  work  in  large  8vo,  of 
which  the  greater  part  is  devoted  to  the  tests  for  the  poisonous 
alkaloids— morphia,  strychnia,  brucia,  veratria,  atropia,  aconi- 
tine,  solanine,  digitaline,  conia  and  nicotia.  In  the  case  of  the 
fixed  alkaloids,  the  results  of  sublimation  and  the  reactions  of 
the  sublimates  are  minutely  described.  The  work  contains  care- 
fulty-prepared  tables  of  the  reactions,  and  is  enriched  by  no  less 
than  sixty-four  micro-photographs,  of  which  thirty-eight  repre- 
sent the  crystalline  forms  of  the  alkaloids  and  their  salts  with 
various  reagents,  and  fourteen  are  devoted  to  sublimates  and 
their  reactions. 
Dr.  Helwig  states  that  the  idea  of  submitting  the  alkaloids  to 
sublimation  first  suggested  itself  to  him  as  a  natural  extension 
*Fresenius's  "  Vierteljahrschrift  fur  analytische  Chemie,"  1864,  i. 
f  "  Das  Mikroskop  in  der  Toxikologie.  Beitrage  zur  mikroskopischen 
und  mikrochemischen  Diagnostik  der  wichtigsten  Metall-  und  Pflanzen- 
gifte,  fur  Gerichtsarzte,  gerichtliche  Chemiker  und  Pkarmaceuteu,  mit 
einem  Atlas  photographirter  mikroskopischer  Praparate.  Von  Dr.  A. 
Helwig, pract.  Artze  und  G-rossherzoglich-Hessischem  Kreiswundarzte  in 
Mains."  1865. 
