i 
ACTION OF ALKALINE BICARBONTES, ETC. 299 
adding, as M. Marchand has indicated, peroxide of lead, 
and a mixture composed of sulphuric and nitric acids ; the 
blue color to which a quantity of strychnia too small to be 
weighed gives rise, in the presence of these matters, is, as 
we know, a most certain sign of the presence or absence of 
this base ; for chlorine, which M. Pelletier has recommend- 
ed as a specific test for strychnia, acts in precisely the same 
manner on veratrine, as direct experiment has proved to 
me. 
If the solution of strychnia is concentrated and contains 
but little tartaric acid, the bicarbonates immediately pro- 
duce a white precipitate of a crystalline texture and the 
liquid no longer exhibits a trace of strychnia. 
Brucia and the solutions of the salts of that base, differ 
completely in this respect, from the salts of strychnia ; the 
alkaline bicarbonates produce not the slightest cloudiness. 
These salts of quinine and cinchonine can also be com- 
pared and separated from one another in the same manner ; 
the quinine cannot be precipitated when tartaric acid is pre- 
sent, while cinchonine is precipitated by the two alkaline 
bicarbonates. 
In the solutions of the salts of veratria, acidified by 
means of tartaric acid, the bicarbonate of soda alone pro- 
duces a precipitate, the bicarbonate of potash producing 
none. 
We see, therefore, that in making use of the property 
possessed by tartaric acid of protecting certain bases from 
the action of alkaline bicarbonates, we succeed in estab- 
lishing two alkaloid groups, very distinct from each other, 
the first of which includes those that can be precipitated by 
bicarbonate of soda, and these are cinchonine, narcotine, 
strychnine and veratrine. 
The second groups contain those that are protected from 
their action, namely, quinine, morphia, and brucia. 
Tartaric acid also protects the infusion of gall nuts from 
the action of all these bases, with the exception of cincho- 
