Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
April,  1883,  J 
Quinium  Salts. 
171 
much  less  bitter  and  less  persistently  bitter  than  this.  Another  advan- 
tage is  that  owing  to  its  greater  solubility  all  other  less  soluble  salts  of 
quinine  can  be  prepared  from  it  by  double  decomposition.  Whilst  being 
the  staple  form  it  would  also  be  the  cheapest  salt  of  the  market,  and 
hence  all  the  other  varieties  prepared  from  it  would  be  correspondingly 
less  costly  than  now. 
In  the  usual  course  of  preparing  the  various  quinium  salts  from  the 
sulphate  two  methods  are  in  vogue.  One  consists  in  precipitating  the 
base  from  the  acid  sulphate  by  means  of  caustic  alkali,  most  generally 
ammonia,  although  sodium  hydrate  or  disodic  carbonate  are  preferable 
since  the  precipitate  then  is  insoluble  in  excess  of  the  reagent,  and  dis- 
solving it  in  the  proportional  quantity  of  acid  of  which  the  salt  is 
desired.  By  the  other  method  either  the  normal  or  acid  sulphate  is 
decomposed  by  barium  salts  of  the  acid  whose  quinium  compound  is  to 
be  obtained.  In  addition  to  these  general  processes  for  preparing  most 
of  the  salts  occasionally  called  for,  there  are  also  certain  advantageous 
modifications  of  these  methods  and  a  selection  of  special  procedures  for 
particular  cases. 
The  employment  of  the  base  and  acids  directly  as  in  the  first  general 
method  is  rarely  desirable,  although  habitually  formulated.  The  use 
of  barium  salts,  though  frequently  directed,  is  not  often  resorted  to. 
In  the  barium  process  the  corresponding  calcium  salts  are  preferably 
substituted,  in  most  cases,  with  superior  effect.  The  process  which  is 
growing  in  popularity  consists  in  the  application  of  alcohol  in  conjunc- 
tion Avith  double  decomposition.  The  operation  is  applicable  by  two 
methods.  The  first  employs  the  alcohol  in  strong,  the  second  in  weak 
forms.  By  the  first  the  entire  precipitation  of  the  by-product  is  aimed 
at.  In  the  second  only  sufficient  alcohol  is  added  to  the  already  com- 
pleted reaction  to  effect  the  solution  of  the  generated  quinium  salt  in 
the  least  volume  of  aqueous  menstruum. 
Quinium  chloride  may  be  prepared  by  the  first  general  method,  that 
is,  by  uniting  quinine  directly  with  chlorhydric  acid.  It  can  also  be 
obtained  by  the  barium  or  calcium  process  from  quinium  sulphate  and 
barium  or  calcium  chloride.  It  may  be  expeditiously  and  effectively 
prepared  from  quinic  sulphate  and  sodic  chloride  in  the  presence  of 
alcohol.  On  evaporating  the  alcoholic  solution,  quinium  chloride  con- 
geals to  a  crystalline  mass.  872  parts  of  quinium  sulphate,  117  parts 
of  sodium  chloride,  and  about  3,000  parts  of  alcohol  are  mixed  and 
warmed  until  complete  decomposition  is  effected.    The  solution  is  then 
