THE  AMEEICAH" 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
MAY,  igii 
THE  IDENTHHCATION  OF  COCAINE  AND  SOME 
COCAINE  SUBSTITUTES. 
By  Francis  J.  Seiter  and  Frederic  Enger. 
During  the  last  five  years,  a  large  number  of  specimens,  con- 
taining cocaine,  has  been  examined  in  this  laboratory.  This  work 
was  done  for  the  Chicago  police  department,  which  has  been  striving 
to  stamp  out  the  illegal  sale  of  cocaine  to  habitual  users  of  the 
alkaloid. 
The  chief  difficulty  which  presented  itself  in  the  analysis  of 
the  specimens  was  the  small  amount  of  material  submitted  by  the 
police  officers.  The  weight  of  an  average  specimen  was  ap- 
proximately O.I  gram.  The  specimens  frequently  contained  acetan- 
ilide  in  amounts  varying  from  20  per  cent,  to  80  per  cent.  Some 
of  the  catarrh  powders,  e.g.,  Dr.  Gray's  Catarrh  Powder,  contained 
but  8  grains  of  cocaine  hydrochloride  to  the  ounce.  As  in  all  these 
cases  a  portion  of  the  specimen  was  reserved  for  exhibition  in 
court,  the  quantity  of  alkaloid  available  for  identification  was  so 
small  as  to  render  imperative  the  adoption  of  a  scheme  of  analysis 
whereby  the  material  might  be  economized  without  sacrifice  of 
accuracy. 
Many  of  the  proposed  tests  for  cocaine  require  considerable 
quantities  of  the  alkaloid  and  yield  results  not  characteristic  of 
cocaine  alone.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  the  tests  with 
concentrated  mineral  acids,  with  or  without  the  addition  of  oxidizers 
or  other  substances  used  in  color  reactions  and  the  test  involving 
the  detection  of  the  benzoyl  group,  which  requires  at  least  0.2  gram, 
(195) 
