A Manual of the Chemistry of the Carbon Compounds

TUB CARBON COMPOUNDS. 417
tetanic convulsions will soon set in, and, if the dose was not large
enough to kill the frog, will last for hours.
Strychnine is a monacid tertiary base; strychnine-mcthylanwwnium
iodide (N^CJJHJJO^CHJ is a crystalline solid, and readily decomposed
by treating it with silver oxide and water; the hydroxide has
not bitter taste, nor does it, or its salts, act as poison when taken internally,
but when injected under the skin it produces paralysis like
curanne (see below).
On adding a solution of strychnine to alcoholic, yellow ammonium
sulphide, a precipitate is formed, consisting of orange-red
needles having the composition CJJHJJNJOJ + H2S8. It is decomposed
by dilute sulphuric acid, and hydrogen (risulphide HgSs separates
out as a colourless oily liquid.
Brucine GiSRial^2Oi + 4H2O occurs together with strychnine in
the seeda of Strychnos Nux-vomica, and alone in the bark of this
tree (fake Angoshvra-lark). It is prepared from the mother-liquor of
strychnine nitrate, by precipitating it with ammonia, and crystallizing
the base from alcohoL It forms colourless prisms, which lose their
water of crystallization when exposed to the air.
It is more soluble than strychnine, and has a bitter taste; its
poisonous properties are similar to those of strychnine, but it acts less
violently. With nitric acid it forms a red solution which becomes
yellow on heatings and when now stannous chloride is added the
liquid assumes a deep-violet colour.
When heated with sulphuric acid and manganese dioxide, it yields
methyl alcohol, and concentrated nitric acid, converts it into methyl
nitrate, oxalic acid, and cacoteline CajH^NO^jN^Oj, a weak base,
forming yellow crystals.
Brucine is a tertiary base; the salts of brueine-inethylammonium
act like the corresponding compounds of strychnine, but less
energetically.
Gtnurme Ci0H,6N is the active principle of the South American
arrow-poison, which is prepared from the milky juice of different
species of strychnos. It forms colourless crystals, having a very
bitter taste. When one milligram is injected under the skin of a
rabbit, paralysis very soon sets in, and the animal dies.
ALKALOIDS OCCURBlNCt IN CINCHONA-HARKS.
The barka of different species of Cinclwna, which are indigenons to
the eastern slopes of the Andes, and are also cultivated in India and
Java, contain a numbor of bases in combination with quinic acid.
The following have been isolated:—
Quinine . . . C20H24N2O2 Cinchonifline
Conquinine . . C20H24N2O,! Paytine . .
Quinamine . . C^H^NJOJ Paricine
Cinchonine . HNO