Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.,  1888. 
Coca  Bases. 
41 
When  one  molecular  proportion  of  urea  is  heated  at  150°  with  two 
molecular  proportions  of  hexachloracetone,  the  amide — 
is  readily  obtained.  It  crystallizes  from  its  alcoholic  solution  in 
yellowish,  hexagonal  plates. 
CONTRIBUTION  TO  THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  COCA 
BASES.^ 
By  0.  Hesse. 
Almost  simultaneously  with  the  publication  of  my  note  on  the  alka- 
loids of  coca  leaves  in  the  Pharmaceutische  Zeitung,  appeared  a  com- 
munication from  W.  C.  Howard,^  in  which  that  chemist  referred  to 
the  alleged  non-existence  of  "  amorphous  cocaine/'  and  at  the  same 
time  gave  a  brief  description  of  a  base  that  he  considered  to  be  hy- 
grine,  though  it  was  obviously  nothing  else  than  the  ^'  amorphous 
•cocaine ''  in  question,  but  probably  in  a  state  of  incomplete  purifica- 
tion. Howard  separated  this  base  from  cocaine  by  means  of  the  cor- 
responding platino-chloride,  which  he  treated  with  a  large  quantity  of 
Avater  at  a  temperature  of  80°  C,  and  thus  dissolved  out  the  cocaine 
•suit  from  the  assumed  hygrine  salt,  which  remained  undissolved.  The 
base  obtained  from  this  salt  was  not  entirely  free  from  smell ;  it  had 
an  intensely  bitter  taste,  formed  an  amorphous  hydrochlorate,  and  the 
platinochloride  contained  from  18*48  to  18*6  per  cent,  of  platinum. 
Howard  is  of  opinion  that  this  base  contains  three  atoms  of  carbon 
more  than  cocaine,  but  he  does  not  furnish  any  data  to  show  that  a 
carbon  determination  was  made,  and  appears  rather  to  have  based  that 
opinion  upon  the  result  of  the  platinum  determination,  overlooking 
the  fact  that  this  platinum  salt  contains  about  5  per  cent,  of  water. 
Probably  this  error  has  arisen  from  the  circumstances  that  the  air- 
dried  cocaine  platinochloride,  being  anhydrous,  contains  under  the 
same  conditions  an  amount  of  platinum  corresponding  to  the  formula — 
(Ci,H,iXO,)2PtCleH2. 
Howard  found  that  the  amount  of  platinum  in  the  platinochloride 
of  this  so-called  hygrine,  which  was  undoubtedly  a  hydrated  salt,  was 
^  From  the  PharmaceiUiscke  Zeitung,  Nov.  23,  reprinted  from  Phar.  Jour,  and 
Trans.,  Nov.  26,  1887. 
^Pharmaceutical  Journal,  [3],  vol.  xviit.,  p.  71.    Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,  1887,  p.  453. 
