Am.  Joyr.  Pharm.  ) 
April,  1911.  / 
Active  Principle  of  Ergot. 
163 
born.  The  injection  of  0.04  gram  of  the  hydroergotinine  was  made 
into  a  pregnant  rabbit  and  two  days  later  0.05  gm.  more  given.  On 
the  third  day  this  animal  died  of  inflammation  of  the  lungs  and  had 
not  miscarried. 
A  similar  injection  of  even  0.25  gm.  ergotinine  caused  no  mis- 
carriage, but  the  animal  died.  Kraft,  basing  his  conclusions  on 
the  experiments  of  Jacquet,  says  that  the  therapeutic  use  of  ergot 
in  exciting  intense  uterine  contractions  cannot  be  traced  to  the 
alkaloids,  and  that  the  alkaloids  are  convulsants,  but  that  the 
bluing  of  the  cock's  comb  may  be  due  to  hydroergotinin.  However, 
Vahlen,  who  tested  a  sample  of  ergotinine  sent  by  Kraft,  found 
it  practically  non-toxic.  The  secalonic  acids  proved  physiologically 
inactive. 
It  must  be  confessed  that  considering  the  physiological  data 
which  Kraft  presents,  one  would  not  feel  convinced  that  these  com- 
pounds represented  the  physiological  activity  of  ergot,  because 
while  the  pregnant  rabbits  aborted  after  the  injection  of  hydro- 
ergotinin, yet  these  animals  showed  marked  constitutional  symp- 
toms, convulsions,  etc.,  and  it  might  be  urged  that  abortion  was 
only  one  feature  of  an  intoxication.  Again,  by  using  glacial  acetic 
acid  and  dilute  alkalies  as  solvents  for  his  bases,  one  is  inclined 
to  trace  at  least  a  portion  of  the  action  to  decomposition  products 
of  the  bodies  brought  about  by  such  solvents. 
While  Kraft  was  carrying  on  his  work,  independent  investiga- 
,  tions  on  the  same  subject  were  being  pursued  at  the  Wellcome 
Research  Laboratory  of  London.  The  first  paper  on  this  subject 
from  that  institution  was  published  by  Barger,^^  Carr  and  Dale 
in  1906,  shortly  after  Kraft's  original  paper  appeared.  These 
investigators  isolated  a  crystalline  base  which  they  named  ergotinin 
and  assigned  to  it  the  empirical  formula  CggHg^^OgNg.  It  proved 
to  be  Tanret's  crystalline  base.  This  alkaloid  formed  amorphous 
salts  and  was  found  to  be  physiologically  inactive,  thus  corroborat- 
ing the  experiments  of  Kobert  and  Meulenhoff.  They  also  isolated 
an  amorphous  base  which  they  named  ergotoxin.  It  was  shown  to 
have  the  composition  Cs^H^^OcN,,.  From  it  they  succeeded  in 
making  a  number  of  crystalline  salts,  especially  an  oxalate,  hydro- 
chlorate,  hydrobromate,  and  a  phosphate.  The  free  base,  unlike 
ergotinine,  was  soluble  in  dilute  sodium  hydrate  solution.  They 
examined  a  sample  of  hydroergotinine  sent  by  Kraft  and  found  it 
to  be  identical  with  their  ergotoxin.    Vahlen  claims,  however,  that 
