AFebruUaryTi9aoim'}  Chemistry  of  Ipecacuanha.  65 
Dumas'  analysis,  was  necessarily  inaccurate.  The  result  arrived  at  by 
Lefort  and  Wurtz  in  their  subsequent  investigation  was  also  defect- 
ive for  the  same  reason,  although  the  mixed  alkaloids  were  then  ob- 
tained in  a  condition  of  greater  freedom  from  impurity  by  extracting 
the  drug  with  ether  in  the  presence  of  lime. 
Podwyssotzki's  result  obtained  by  employing  ferric  chloride  to 
remove  the  tannin  constituent  was  vitiated  by  using  petroleum 
spirit  for  extraction.  The  product  thus  obtained  was  consequently 
an  indefinite  mixture  of  cephaeline  and  emetine  from  the  action  of 
the  petroleum  spirit  on  both  the  alkaloids,  whilst  probably  the 
greater  part  of  the  emetine  was  not  extracted  at  all.  Kunz  also 
used  petroleum  spirit  and  with  a  similar  result,  as  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  the  alkaloid  obtained  is  described  as  (partially  ?)  soluble 
in  caustic  alkalies.  The  formula  deduced  from  analysis  by  Kunz 
was  therefore  necessarily  incorrect,  as  the  material  operated  upon 
by  him  must  have  been  a  mixture.  The  experiments  made  by  Kunz 
for  ascertaining  the  constitution  of  emetine  were  also,  for  the  same 
reason,  fallacious,  and  therefore  no  importance  can  be  assigned  to 
the  conclusions  that  were  arrived  at  by  him.  The  observations  of 
Blunt,1  that  a  so-called  emetine  of  the  molecular  weight  508,  as 
assigned  to  it  by  Kunz,  requires  one  equivalent  of  a  dibasic  acid 
for  neutralization,  do  not  in  any  way  advance  the  chemistry  of  the 
subject,  inasmuch  as  Glenard  had  already  shown  that  pure  emetine 
assumed  to  have  a  combining  weight  of  248  is  monobasic ;  hence  it 
naturally  follows  that  if  the  base  were  assumed  to  have  a  combin- 
ing weight  twice  as  great  it  would  appear  to  be  dibasic.  Blunt, 
like  Kunz,  failed  to  obtain  emetine  hydrochloride  in  a  crystalline 
form,  for  the  simple  reason  that  both  chemists  were  dealing  with 
a  mixture  of  the  two  bases  emetine  and  cephaeline. 
Glenard,  however,  was  more  fortunate  in  his  investigation.  That 
was  due  to  the  care  taken  in  obtaining  the  alkaloid  in  the  state  of  a 
crystalline  neutral  hydrochloride,  after  extraction,  by  treatment  with 
lime  and  ether.  As  a  consequence  of  adopting  that  method  of 
treatment,  the  cephaeline  was  eliminated  and  emetine  was  isolated 
in  a  pure  condition,  as  shown  by  the  results  of  Glenard's  analyses, 
which  correspond  very  closely  with  our  own.  Indications  of  the 
existence  of  another  alkaloid  were  observed  by  Glenard,  but  they 
were  not  followed  up  by  him. 
XT.  P.  Blunt,  Pharm.  Journ.,  3,  XX,  809. 
