37^ 
Paricine  and  Aricine. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1       July,  1879. 
shown  that  the  hydriodate  of  aricine  crystallizes  with  extraordinary 
ease,  whilst  the  hydriodate  of  the  alkaloid  prepared  and  described  as 
aricine  by  D.  Howard  does  not  possess  this  property. 
For  several  years  past  "  aricine  "  and  its  compounds  have  been  shown 
in  many  private  collections,  partly  under  this  name  and  partly  under  the 
name  of  cinchovatine.  All  these  preparations  which  I  have  had  the 
good  fortune  to  be  able  to  examine  were,  as  a  rule,  mixtures,  with 
homocinchonidine  and  cinchonidine  as  the  preponderating  constituents. 
The  cinchovatine  prepared  by  Winckler,  for  which  \  have  to  thank 
De  Vrij,  consisted,  on  the  other  hand,  almost  entirely  of  homocincho- 
nidine. This  alkaloid  prepared  by  Winckler,  to  which  D.  Howard 
also  refers  in  the  before-mentioned  communication,  forms  very  fine 
white  prisms,  but  contains,  like  all  specimens  of  "aricine"  examined 
by  me  up  to  the  year  1876,  no  trace  of  that  alkaloid. 
In  1877  De  Vrij  placed  at  my  disposal  his  whole  stock  of  aricine 
preparations  which  he  had  obtained  up  to  that  time,  adding  that  they 
had  not  been  examined  by  him.  With  the  exception  of  two,  these 
preparations  fell  into  the  above-named  category  ;  i.  e.  they  contained 
homocinchonidine,  etc.,  but  no  aricine. 
One  preparation  was,  on  the  other  hand,  actually  aricine  sulphate. 
The  glass  vessel  bears  the  description  "  Sulfate  d'Aricine,"  and  there- 
fore this  preparation  probably  originates  from  a  French  manufactory. 
De  Vrij  added  the  remark  that  at  the  time  (1877)  he  did  not  accurately 
know  from  whence  he  had  obtained  it. 
A  second  preparation  corresponded,  on  the  contrary,  with  the  alka- 
loid described  by  D.  Howard.  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  it  is  a 
specimen  of  the  substance  formerly  prepared  by  Mr.  J.  E.  Howard. 
De  Vrij  did  not  mention  his  name  but  only  said  that  he  received  this 
aricine  about  thirty  years  ago  from  a  friend  who  had  prepared  it  by 
precipitation  from  an  aqueous  solution  of  gelatinous  sulphate.  This 
preparation  is  nothing  more  than  impure  paricine. 
I  have  formerlv  shown  that  quinamine,  of  which  the  C.  succirubra 
yields  a  considerable  quantity,  passes  upon  treatment  with  one  molecule 
of  S03  into  protoquinamicine,  C17H20N2O2,  and  have  suggested  that 
probably  paricine  results  from  this  decomposition  product,  according  to 
the  following  equation  : 
C17H20N2O2+O=C16H18N2O+CH2O2. 
Protoquinamicine.       Paricine.       Formic  Acid. 
