Societies and Associations invited to send Delegates to the Annual Meeting 362 INTRODUCTION. THE chemical literature of the year is again full of interest to the pharmaceutical reader. The pages of this volume devoted to organic chemistry will not be searched in vain for fresh illustrations of the important services annually rendered to pharmacy by this branch of science, especially with regard to the progress towards a more perfect knowledge of the alkaloids and other active principles of vegetable drugs. Turning, in the first place, to the work done in the direction of the synthetical production of these bodies, it will be seen from a report by A. Ladenburg and C. F. Roth that the artificial preparation of piperidine may now be considered an accomplished fact. The former of these authors had previously shown that, by the action of sodium on an alcoholic solution of pyridine, a base is obtained the platino-chloride of which agrees in its properties with that of piperidine. A careful comparison of these two alkaloids has now established their perfect identity. As another remarkable success in this direction we refer to the all but complete synthesis of coniine, the active principle of hemlock. For some time the existence of a close relation between this base and some propyl derivatives of pyridine had been clearly recognised both by A. W. Hofmann and A. Ladenburg, the latter of whom now reports that a-isopropylpyridine, a product of the action at a high temperature of isopropyl-iodide on pyridine, corresponds with coniine in its physiological action as well as in most of its chemical and physical properties, the only essential difference consisting in its optical inactivity. On the strength of these observations he is inclined to think that, if this base can be split up into two optically active components, its dextro-rotatory portion will prove to be perfectly identical with coniine. J. Berlinerblau claims to have effected the synthesis of muscarine while studying the products of the prolonged action of trimethylamine in sealed tubes on monochloracetal obtained by 2 Paterno and Mazzara's process. Xanthine has been obtained by A. Gauthier on heating a mixture of dilute hydrocyanic and acetic acids to 140–150° C. in sealed tubes. The synthesis of this base acquires additional significance in view of E. Fischer's previous observation respecting the convertibility of this substance into theobromine and caffeine. In connection with this subject it is interesting to note that A. Baginsky has succeeded in detecting both xanthine and hypoxanthine in tea, having been induced to search for the former in consequence of the close relation established between this base and caffeine. The chemical constitution of cocaine forms the subject of a research by Calmels and Gossin, who arrive at the conclusion that this body may be regarded as a di-ether of methylethyltetrahydropyridine carbonic acid. Much interest has lately been manifested in this alkaloid on account of the valuable anæsthetic properties which it has been discovered to possess. The value of its hydrochlorate for the purpose of producing local anesthesia is testified by a number of investigators whose reports will be found in this volume. Attention is also called to the instability of its weak solutions intended for hypodermic use; and salicylic acid, camphor water, and boracic acid are recommended for preventing the development of fungoid growth in such solutions, of which the last-named preservative, employed in the proportion of -1 per cent., is found by E. R. Squibb to be the safest and the best. J. D. A. Hartz describes an improved process for the extraction of daturine, giving a much increased yield; while G. Merling recommends a method for the purification of commercial belladonine. It should be borne in mind, however, that the continued use of the name "daturine" is hardly in keeping with the present state of chemical knowledge, since Ladenburg's classical researches. on the mydriatics have clearly demonstrated that the alkaloid of Datura Stramonium is a mixture of atropine and hyoscyamine. It will also be remembered that the individuality of "belladonine" too has been rendered more than doubtful by the same researches. Myoctonine, one of the two alkaloids recently isolated by Dragendorff and Spohn from the yellow-flowered aconite, Aconitum lycoctonum (Year-Book of Pharmacy, 1884, p. 71), has been further studied by Salmonowitz, who gives a description of its physical, chemical, and physiological properties. In a paper on "hydrastine," F. B. Power furnishes some additional information respecting the characters and tests of this alkaloid and its sulphate. Reporting upon "berberine," J. U. Lloyd calls attention to the fact that the lemon-yellow crystalline powder obtained by treating a solution of the commercial sulphate of this base with ammonia water and then extracting with ether, is not the free alkaloid, as has been assumed, but a neutral sulphate; while the compound usually met with as sulphate is in reality a bisulphate. In a similar manner the crystals obtained and described by A. Houdès as "colchicine" (Year-Book of Pharmacy, 1884, p. 68) are shown by S. Zeisel not to be pure colchicine, but a combination of this base with chloroform, from which the latter can be eliminated by prolonged boiling of the aqueous solution. The articles on thebaine, strychnine, and brucine, abstracted in this volume, deal chiefly with derivatives, products of change, and compounds of these bases. With reference to brucine, we may here allude to the interesting observation by L. L. de Coninck, that one of the compounds resulting from the action of caustic potash on this alkaloid, proves to be identical with a base obtained hy him a few years ago under similar conditions from cinchonine, which he then recognised as having the composition of tetrahydroquinoleine. Some very interesting information will be found in this volume respecting the alkaloid homoquinine obtained from cuprea bark (Remijia pedunculata). This body, at first supposed by O. Hesse to be a modification of quinine on account of its yielding this base upon treatment with caustic soda, is proved by B. H. Paul and A. J. Cownley to be a molecular combination of quinine with a new base, named by them "cupreine." Caustic alkalies split up this compound into its components, of which quinine is precipitated while cupreine remains in solution. Subsequent researches by O. Hesse fully confirm these statements; but while this chemist believes the two bases to exist in homoquinine in about equal proportions, Paul and Cownley give the ratio of quinine and cupreine as 2:3. All agree now in regarding homoquinine, not as a mixture containing these bases in the free state, but as an individual alkaloid possessing properties distinct from those of its components. The interest attaching to this subject is still further enhanced by the observation that this body can with ease be prepared synthetically from ethereal solutions of quinine and cupreine, and that the compound thus formed corresponds in all its characters with homoquinine from cuprea bark. O. Hesse has continued his researches on the bark of Remijia Purdieana from which, in addition to cinchonine and cinchonamine, he has obtained the new alkaloids concusconine, chairamine, conchairamine, chairamidine, and conchairamidine, all of which are fully described. in his paper. Concusconidine, referred to in a previous communi |