304 
Epinephrin  and  its  Compounds. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharrri. 
July,  1903. 
phate  did  not  reduce  Fehling's  solution.  As  will  be  seen  later, 
their  failure  to  obtain  a  reduction  with  Fehling's  solution  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  they  did  not  boil  the  solution  for  a  sufficient  length 
of  time.  While  opposed  to  Brunner  on  this  point,  they  were  in  full 
agreement  with  v.  Furth,1  Metzger2  and  Moore,3  all  of  whom,  also, 
at  this  time  took  the  ground  that  extracts  of  the  suprarenal  gland 
do  not  reduce  Fehling's  solution.  This  point  is  of  minor  importance 
only,  as  it  concerns  but  one  among  the  reactions  of  the  blood-pres- 
sure-raising principle.  We  shall  refer  to  it  again  in  a  later  section 
of  this  paper. 
In  two  subsequent  papers4  the  following  statements,  among  others, 
were  made  by  the  writer  in  reference  to  the  active  principle  which 
he  now  named  epinephrin. 
(1)  Epinephrin  is  a  basic  substance.  It  is  thrown  out  of  its  solu- 
tion in  acids  by  ammonia  in  the  form  of  an  amorphous  flocculent 
compound,  which  rapidly  loses  its  power  to  raise  the  arterial 
pressure. 
(2)  Both  the  free  base  and  its  salts  give  reactions  with  a  consider- 
able number  of  alkaloidal  reagents. 
(3)  Both  the  free  base  and  its  salts  give  the  color  reactions  of 
Vulpian,  reduce  silver  nitrate,  and  in  all  other  ways  agree  with  what 
is  known  in  respect  to  Vulpian's  chromogen. 
(4)  The  formula  C17H15N04  was  adopted  as  expressing  the  elemen- 
tary composition  of  epinephrin,  this  formula  being  based  on  the 
analyses  of  a  considerable  series  of  salts  and  derivatives,  all  of  which 
were  obtained  by  saponification  of  the  original  benzoyl  compound 
by  means  of  very  dilute  sulphuric  acid  in  an  autoclave. 
(5)  After  saponifying  this  benzoyl  product  in  the  manner  just 
described,  the  liberated  base  was  first  precipitated  as  a  picrate,  and 
from  this  picrate  other  salts  such  as  the  bisulphate  were  formed  by 
simple  transposition  in  the  proper  medium.  The  salts  thus  prepared 
possessed  a  high  degree  of  physiological  activity.  Singularly 
enough,  however,  on  precipitating  the  free  base  from  these  active 
salts  it  was  found  to  have  little  power  to  raise  the  blood-pressure. 
1  Zeitschr.  f.  physiol.  Chem.,  XXIV,  p.  142. 
2  Zur  Kenntniss  der  wirksamen  Substauzen  der  Nebenniere,  Diss.  Wiirzburg, 
1897. 
3 Jour.  Physiol.,  Vol.  XXI,  1897. 
4  Abel:  Johns  Hopkins  Bulletin,  September-October,  1898,  Nos.  90-91;  Zeit- 
schrift  J.  physiol.  Chem.,  Bd.  XXVIII,  pages  318-362. 
