312 
Saccharin. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
L       June,  1886. 
water.  It  may  be  easily  produced  by  heating  cocaine  with  about 
twenty  parts  of  water  in  a  closed  tube.  At  first  the  cocaine  melts 
when  the  temperature  is  about  90°  C,  but  it  gradually  dissolves  on 
maintaining  the  heat  at  100°  C,  while  bubbles  of  gas  or  vapour  es- 
cape from  the  mass.  The  change  is  facilitated  by  occasionally  shaking 
the  tube  so  as  to  distribute  the  melted  cocaine  through  the  water  in 
globules  and  thus  extend  the  surface  of  contact.  After  about  twelve 
hours  a  perfectly  clear  solution  is  obtained,  and  on  testing  this  with 
litmus  paper  it  has  only  a  very  faint  acid  reaction  if  the  cocaine  used 
has  been  purified  by  recrystallization  from  alcohol.  With  impure 
cocaine,  on  the  contrary,  the  acid  reaction  of  the  liquid  is  often  very 
decided.  By  evaporating  the  liquid  to  a  small  bulk  the  benzoyl  ecgo- 
nine  crystallizes  in  needles,  closely  resembling  ammonium  oxalate. 
These  crystals  when  dried  by  exposure  to  the  air  retain  some  combined 
water,  and  they  melt  when  heated;  but  when  dried  over  oil  of  vitrol 
they  become  opaque  and  then  no  longer  melt  when  heated  in  the 
water-bath.  In  my  former  paper  it  was  stated  that  I  could  not  then 
succeed  in  obtaining  benzoic  acid  from  this  substance  by  heating  it 
with  concentrated  hydrochloric  acid,  and  this  was  due  to  the  very 
small  quantity  of  material  I  had  to  deal  with,  less  than  half  a  gram. 
I  now  find  that  it  does  yield  benzoic  acid  when  heated  with  strong 
hydrochloric  acid,  as  well  as  by  the  action  of  caustic  soda. 
It  will  be  interesting  to  observe  the  difference  in  the  physiological 
action  of  this  substance  as  compared  with  cocaine.  So  far  as  the  trials 
already  made  determine  this  point,  benzoyl  ecgonine  does  not  appear  to 
have  much,  if  any,  anaesthetic  effect  when  applied  to  the  eye,  or  to  pro- 
duce any  appreciable  result  beyond  a  little,  but  decided,  dilatation  of  the 
pupil.  Chemically  this  substance  differs  from  cocaine  only  by  CH2,  or  in 
other  words,  it  is  cocaine  in  which  a  methyl  group  (CH3)  has  been  re- 
placed by  hydrogen. —  Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans.,  March  27, 1886,  p.  81 7. 
SACCHARIC. 
Under  the  name  of  saccharin,  a  substance  has  recently  attracted 
notice,  both  in  Europe  and  in  America,  that  seems  destined  to  play  no 
small  role  commercially,  and  it  may  be  also  therapeutically.1 
1  Fahlberg.  *'  Saccharine." — American  Chemical  Journal,  Vol.  I.,  p.  170.,  Vol.  II., 
p.  181,  and  Fahlbekg  and  Rkmsen,  Vol.  I.,  p.  426. 
V.  Aducco  e  TJ.  Mosso.  "  Esperienze  fisiologiche  intorno  all'azione  della 
sulfinide  benzoica  o  saccarina  di  Fahlberg." — Archivio  p.  I.  Scienzc  Mediche,  Vol. 
IX.,  p.  407, 1886. 
