ON  VALERIANATE  OF  ATROPIA. 
263 
Congress  of  Florence  in  1842,  by  Prince  Louis  Lucien  Bona- 
parte, and  investigated  by  him  with  great  care,  hardly  any  one 
was  known  except  the  valerianate  of  atropine. 
To  obtain  this  salt  in  the  greatest  possible  state  of  purity,  we 
must  have  recourse  to  the  method  employed  by  Prince  Louis 
Lucien  Bonaparte  for  the  preparation  of  valerianate  of  quinine, 
as  indeed  was  done  by  M.  Miche^a,  who  first  procured  it.  A  slight 
excess  of  valerianic  acid  is  poured,  into  a  very  concentrated 
alcoholic  solution  of  atropine,  and  about  twice  its  volume  of  dis- 
tilled water  is  added  to  the  mixture.  Care  must  be  taken  to 
effect  the  saturation  in  the  cold,  as  too  intense  a  heat  destroys 
the  compound  formed.  The  whole  is  exposed,  in  a  shallow  vessel, 
to  spontaneous  evaporation,  or  to  the  temperature  of  a  warm 
chamber,  not  exceeding  122°  F.  The  residue  in  the  vessel  after 
evaporation  is  valerianate  of  atropine. 
Unlike  valerianate  of  quinine,  valerianate  of  atropine  does  not 
crytallize.  It  presents  the  appearance  of  a  syrupous  liquid,  of 
a  bright  yellow  color,  which  changes  to  orange  in  contact  with 
the  air.  It  has  the  fetid  odor  of  valerianic  acid,  and  deviates 
polarized  light  very  slightly  to  the  left.  Its  molecular  rotatory 
power  may  be  valued  at — 11-807.  It  is  very  soluble  in  water, 
and  its  solution,  which  is  at  first  neutral,  becomes  acid  by  eva- 
poration. 
Infusion  of  gall-nuts  produces  in  it  a  much  less  rapid  and  abun- 
dant precipitate  than  that  which  it  causes  in  the  solution  of 
atropine.  Chloride  of  gold  produces  in  it  a  citron-yellow  color, 
without  any  very  manifest  precipitate.  Tincture  of  iodine  does 
not  cause  a  brown  color. 
The  aqueous  solution  of  valerianate  of  atropine  produces  no 
turbidity  in  chloride  of  barium,  but  it  precipitates  the  neutral 
aqueous  solution  of  nitrate  of  silver.  The  precipitate  is  soluble 
in  much  water,  and  disappears  entirely  on  the  addition  of  a  few 
drops  of  nitric  acid.  If  the  aqueous  solution  of  valerianate  of 
atropine  be  treated  with  mineral  acids,  even  with  the  weakest, 
valerianic  acid,  recognizable  by  its  odor,  is  evolved. — Oomptes 
Bendus,  December,  21,  1857,  from  Chemical  Gazette,  February, 
15,  1858. 
