AmA{;|"srtj8'99!"m-}     Digitoxin,  Principle  of  Digitalis.  379 
ON  DIGITOXIN  AS  THE  ACTIVE  PRINCIPLE  OF 
DIGITALIS. 
By  Joseph  W.  England, 
It  is  not  the  writer's  intention  to  endeavor  to  solve  the  many- 
perplexing  statements  that  have  been  made,  especially  in  recent 
years,  regarding  the  exact  chemical  nature  of  the  proximate 
principles  of  digitalis  leaves.  But  there  is  one  matter  that  should 
be  set  right  by  pharmacological  data,  and  that  is  the  clear  impos- 
sibility of  digitoxin  being  the  dominating  therapeutic  principle  of 
digitalis,  as  has  been  claimed. 
Since  Schmiedeberg  wrote  his  paper  on  the  subject  in  1875  (Arch, 
exp.  Pathol,  un.  Pharm. y  3,  15),  the  accuracy  of  his  work  on  the  chemi- 
cal composition  of  digitalis  leaf  has  not  been  questioned,  until 
recently. 
Kiliani  reported,  in  1892  (Archiv.  der  -Pharm.y  230,  p.  250,  vide 
Pharm.  Jour,  and  Trans.,  June  25, 1892,  p.  1061,  Am.  Jour.  Pharm., 
1892,  415),  that  "the  digitalin  of  Schmiedeberg  is  a  distinctly  indi- 
vidual substance  which  possesses,  in  a  marked  degree,  the  character- 
istic property  of  acting  upon  the  heart."  Further,  he  said  :  "Analysis 
gave  results  agreeing  with  those  obtained  by  Schmiedeberg,  which 
lead  to  the  formula  (C5H802).  This  agreement  may  be  taken  as 
strong  evidence  that  Schmiedeberg's  digitalin  was  a  chemically  indi- 
vidual substance.  However,  the  best  support  of  this  view  is  fur- 
nished by  the  behavior  of  digitalin  with  dilute  hydrochloric  acid. 
The  substance  is  thus  split  up  very  definitely  into  digitaligenin, 
glucose  and  digitalose.  When  pure  digitalin  is  used,  the  first-named 
product  separates  at  once  in  fine  crystals,  but  when  the  material 
operated  upon  contains  some  of  the  other  glucosides,  the  digitaligenin 
cannot  be  made  to  crystallize  at  all,  or  only  by  very  tedious 
operations." 
In  1892  Kiliani  reported  (Am.  Jour.  Pharm.,  422)  upon  the  phar- 
macological testing  made  by  Professor  Boehm,  of  Leipzig,  with 
Schmiedeberg's  digitalin. 
Professor  Boehm  found  that  this  digitalin,  administered  to  frogs  in 
0  5  milligramme  doses,  produced  systolic  stoppage  of  the  heart  after 
fifteen  to  twenty  minutes.  Intravenal  injection  of  2  milligrammes 
in  dogs  caused  increase  of  blood  pressure  with  reduction  of  the  fre- 
quency of  the  pulse  and  the  increase  of  its  volume.    Double  the 
