Researches on strychnine / by I. L. Crawcour.

  • Isaac Lionel Crawcour
Date:
1856
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches on strychnine / by I. L. Crawcour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    V ^c®-'^ (ft) O? & FHTSiCJAMS jNTEW ORLEANS MEDICAL NEWS AND HOSPITAL GAZETTE. VOL. III. SEPTEMBER 1, 1856. NO. Vll. RESEARCHES ON STRYCHNINE. By I. L. Crawcour, M. D.. F. S. A., Professor of Chemistry atul Medical Jurisprudence, New Orleans School of Medicine, etc., etc. The recent trial in England, of poisoning by strychnine, has invested this alkaloid with a peculiar interest, and will probably cause its properties to be at length fully investigated. It is astonishing what misconceptions and mis-statements are to be found, even in the works of the best authors, respecting it. According to Brande, and the statement is corroborated by Gregory in his Organic Chemistry, it is “ neither fusible nor volatile and insoluble in alcohol and ether”—our own experience is diametrically opposed to this assertion. Like all the organic radicals, it is decomposable at an elevated temperature, but by a proper management of heat it may be divided into two distinct substances, each possessed of peculiar properties, and is very soluble in ether. Strychnine, as we ordinarily find it in commerce, is crystalline, very slightly soluble in water, exceedingly bitter, soluble to but a slight extent in cold alcohol, and composed of the following elements, viz.: carbon 44, hydrogen 24, oxygen 4, nitrogen 2. On exposing it to a moderate heat, it fuses into a brownish liquid, and on increasing it to about 600° F., a portion sublimes, and may be condensed in a cool receiver, while a pecu- liar resinous and viscid solid remains behind; on still further increasing the heat, the resin is burnt off and a bulky coal is left. As it is solely in the sublimate that the peculiar properties of strychnine are found, 1 pro- pose distinguishing them as follows : the sublimate we will call strychnine proper, the resinous residue, strychnine extractive. The sublimed strych- nine or strychnine proper, condenses in fine arborescent crystals, is like ordinary strychnine exceedingly bitter, is insoluble in cold alcohol, and re-