504  Refort  on  the  Aconite  Alkaloids.  {^"^'^tZ'r^^^' 
a  definite  crystallizable  substance  occurring  naturally  intermixed  with 
larger  or  smaller  quantities  of  amorphous  bases  of  much  less  highly 
active  characters,  and  is  readily  split  up  by  various  chemical  reagents 
into  benzoic  acid  and  a  base  (aconine)  comparatively  speaking  inert. 
The  want  of  uniformity  in  physiological  action  of  the  product  obtained 
by  processes  such  as  those  employed  by  the  older  chemists  being  due 
partly  to  the  presence  of  variable  quantities  of  the  natural  amorphous 
alkaloids  co-existing  with  aconitine,  and  partly  to  the  decomposition  of 
a  large  portion  of  the  aconitine  originally  present  by  the  action  of  the 
particular  chemicals  and  mode  of  treatment  employed  during  the  extrac- 
tion operations.  Further,  the  relationships  of  this  aconitine  to  other 
analogous  aconite  alkaloids  derived  from  other  species  [e.  g.^  pseud- 
aconitine  from  J.  ferox\  and  to  organic  bodies  generally,  have  been 
attentively  studied. 
As  a  consequence  of  these  experiments,  a  demand  for  pure  crys- 
tallized aconitine  has  sprung  up,  more  especially  in  America,  the  object 
being  to  replace  the  amorphous  unreliable  preparations  generally  met 
with  in  the  market  by  the  pure  uniform  alkaloid;  but  at  the  present 
moment  this  demand  is,  to  a  great  extent,  unsatisfied,  because  whilst 
the  supply  of  A.  napellus  of  American  growth  is  too  limited  to  enable 
American  drug  manufacturers  to  prepare  the  pure  alkaloid  themselves, 
its  manufacture  in  Europe  has  not  yet  been  carried  out  to  any  con- 
siderable extent;  from  whence  it  results  that,  whilst  the  Committee  of 
the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  on  the  Revision  of  the  U. 
S.  Pharmacopoeia  is  desirous  that  the  forthcoming  new  edition  of  that 
pharmacopoeia  should  exclude  the  amorphous  preparations,  and  should 
define  aconitine  solely  as  the  crystallized  uniform  body  CggH^gNO^g, 
described  in  detail  in  former  reports  to  the  Pharmaceutical  Conference;^ 
yet  it  appears  at  present  somewhat  doubtful  whether  it  will  be  prac- 
ticable for  this  desire  to  be  carried  out,  simply  because  this  pure  article 
is  not  to  be  found  in  the  market,  at  any  rate,  to  an  extent  at  all  com- 
parable with  the  demand  for  it. — Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans. ^  Sept.  1 1,  1880. 
1  For  an  epitome  of  the  characters  (physical  and  chemical)  of  aconitine  and  other 
allied  aconite  alkaloids, 'z/zV^'  *' The  Pharmaceutical  Journal,"  July  3,  1880,  and 
following  numbers,  in  which  some  points  connected  with  the  practical  economical 
side  of  the  question  are  discussed,  the  origin  of  these  communications  being  an 
application  to  the  subscriber  by  Dr.  Charles  Rice,  chairman  of  the  Revision  Com- 
mittee of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia,  for  a  precis  of  the  characters  of  aconitine  and 
other  information  concerning  it  for  the  guidance  of  the  committee. — C.  R.  Alder 
Wright. 
