344 
Assay  of  Nux  Von  tic  a. 
Ani.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1392. 
cases  the  loss  was  mechanical  and  mostly  avoided  by  employing 
flasks,  or  deep  platinum  dishes  and  gauze  covers,  or  spontaneous 
evapora'tion. 
It  was  shown  experimentally  before  the  Cincinnati  section  of  the- 
Am.  Chem.  Society  at  the  meeting  of  May  19,  that  the  iron 
magma  after  its  abstraction  gave  no  alkaloidal  reaction  and  was  not 
bitter  to  the  taste,  the  chloroform  solutions  yielding  (evaporation  by 
boiling)  98-44  per  cent,  of  the  strychnine  used.  There  seems  to  be 
no  reason  to  doubt,  even  if  the  chloroformic  residue  does  not  give 
the  calculated  amount  of  strychnine,  that  the  magma  may  have 
been  thoroughly  abstracted. 
(5)  Mixtures  of  Brucine  and  Strychnine. — Brucine  acts  favorably 
when  associated  with  strychnine,  from  a  gravimetric  view,  as  pre- 
viously stated,  for  it  keeps  that  alkaloid  in  an  amorphous  condition 
and  thus  prevents  a  loss  that  is  otherwise  difficult  to  entirely  over- 
come. 
One  gm.  each  was  dissolved  in  100  cc.  of  the  officinal  menstruum 
for  making  fluid  extract  of  nux  vomica,  and  known  amounts 
abstracted  by  the  usual  process. 
Table  IV. 
Gave  Calculated. 
5  cc,  0*107  gm-  o'ioo 
2'5  cc,  0*056    "  0-050 
I  CC,  0'022     "  0*020 
Subsequent  investigations  demonstrated  the  complete  abstraction 
of  each  magma.  It  was  neither  bitter  nor  capable  of  yielding  alka- 
loidal reactions.  In  this  connection,  the  following  statement  of 
Norton  and  Nichols  is  in  order: 
"A  further  test  of  the  delicacy  of  the  process  was  shown  by  the 
following  experiment: 
o-oooo  1  gm.  of  a  mixture  of  brucine  and  strychnine  was  put  through 
the  assay  and  the  residue  on  the  watch  -glass,  though  not  visible,  still 
yielded  the  bitter  taste  of  the  alkaloids."1 
Summary. — The  foregoing  experiments  seem  to  show  that  there 
is  no  loss  in  weight  of  alkaloid  in  this  part  of  the  assay  method,  but, 
upon  the  contrary,  an  appreciable  increase  in  weight  over  that  of 
the  true  mixed  alkaloids  really  present.  The  iron  magma  is  com- 
pletely abstracted.  Unless  there  is  a  loss  in  the  subsequent  rota- 
tions, the  method  of  assay  should,  therefore,  give  slightly  exagger- 
lJour.  Anal,  and  App.  Chem.,  March,  p.  165. 
