Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1886. 
Cocaine  and  Atropine. 
241 
in  the  fluid,  and  the  precipitate  thrown  down  by  an  excess  is  more  or 
less  brown,  instead  of  being  of  a  distinct  violet  purple  or  red. 
On  heating  the  mixture  cautiously,  there  is  developed  also  in  solu- 
tions of  these  impure  products  an  odor  in  some  cases  resembling  that 
of  the  oil  of  bitter  almonds,  in  others  like  that  of  crude  cocaine. 
The  development  of  this  foreign  odor  is  interfered  with,  at  least  in 
some  cases,  by  an  excess  of  the  reagent. 
Pure  cocaine  salts,  I  believe,  are  now  abundant  in  the  market,  but 
occasionally  we  meet  with  products  reasonably  white  and  free  from 
any  apparent  admixture,  which  are  nevertheless  very  impure.  The 
hydrochlorate  is  now  generally  offered  in  the  form  of  hydrate  crystals, 
and  these,  when  white,  well  formed  and  dry,  are  presumably  pure, 
although  they  are  rarely  quite  free  from  odor. 
The  characters  which  a  pure  salt  hydrochlorate  of  cocaine  should 
possess  may  be  stated  as  follows : 
It  should  be  nearly  or  quite  odorless ;  especially  it  should  not  have 
an  acid  odor,  or  one  resembling  benzoic  acid.  The  reaction  should 
not  be  strongly  acid  to  litmus.  The  salt  should  dissolve  in  sulpho- 
molybdic  acid  without  producing  any  transient  brown  coloration,  or 
any  immediate  coloration  whatever.  It  should  dissolve  also  in  sul- 
phuric acid  to  a  colorless  solution.  A  2-per-cent.  solution  of  the 
salt  should  not  become  brown  on  addition  of  a  drop  or  two  of  deci- 
normal  solution  of  potassium  permanganate,  neither  should  the  solution 
develop  any  strong  foreign  odor  on  heating  after  the  addition  of  a 
larger  quantity  of  the  permanganate.  The  precipitate  produced  in 
stronger  solutions  by  permanganate  must  be  of  a  clear,  violet-purple 
or  red  color,  and  must  consist,  at  least  in  part,  of  distinct  rhombic  crys- 
tals of  cocaine  permanganate. 
Apeil  21,  1886. 
NOTE  ON  COCAINE  AND  ATROPINE. 
By  Peofessoe  Fleckigee. 
In  my  paper,  Pharmaceutical  Journal  of  January  16,  p  602  (see 
Am.  Joue.  Phae.,  March,  p.  129),  mentioned  briefly  that  cocaine 
produces  a  white  precipitate  in  mercuric  chloride,  turning  red  after  a  few 
hours,  and  that  the  said  alkaloid  is  unable  to  redden  phenolphtalein 
paper.  Having  recently  been  presented  with  excellent  specimens  of 
cocaine  by  my  friend,  Dr.  Squibb,  of  Brooklyn,  I  applied  the  above 
16 
