INTRODUCTION. THE pages of this volume furnish evidence that the steady growth of the various sciences bearing on pharmacy has been more than maintained during the past year, both as regards the number and importance of the contributions to their literature. The reader who has watched the progress of organic chemistry within the last decade, and has followed, step by step, the advance in the direction of organic synthesis, is fully aware that the artificial production of vegetable alkaloids and similar active principles, which but a few years ago seemed little more than a fond dream, has now become a reality, and is the outcome, not of accidental discovery, but of close and systematic studies of the constitution of those bodies. As a striking success in this direction we refer to the complete synthesis of conine recently accomplished by A. Ladenburg. It will be remembered, from his previous researches, that the action of paraldehyde on a-picoline leads to the formation of a-allylpyridine, and that this body, when treated with reducing agents, yields a-propylpiperidine, a base agreeing in most of its properties with conine, but differing from it by its optical inactivity and the lower melting point of its hydrochloride. Subsequently, however, this untiring investigator succeeded in splitting up the inactive product into a dextrorotatory and a lævorotatory base, the former of which proved to be identical in every respect with natural conine. This remarkable result acquires special significance from the fact that a-picoline can be synthetically built up by a series of reactions beginning with the formation of acetic acid from its elements, and that the preparation of conine from a-picoline therefore constitutes the first instance, in the strictest sense of the term, of the complete synthesis of an important vegetable alkaloid. A. Ladenburg also publishes an account of methyl-, ethyl-, and isopropyl-pyridines, and of the corresponding piperidine bases produced from alcoholic solutions of the former by reduction with sodium. Piperidine obtained in this way is stated to be identical with the alkaloid prepared from piperine. L. Storch has effected the synthesis of a number of pyridine bases by heating glycerin with a strong solution of ammonium sulphate and sulphuric acid, and a similar result has been obtained by J. Plöchl with ammonium chloride by the action of aldehydes at a high temperature. The transformation of citric acid into pyridine-derivatives is reported upon by S. Ruhemann. In order to throw further light on the alleged presence in strychnine of a phenylpyridine- as well as a quinoline-group, C. Stoehr has distilled this base with alkali, and has thus obtained, in addition to a hydride of pyridine, y-picoline, identified as such by its crystalline form and melting point, as well as by the composition of its auro- and mercuro-chlorides. A crystalline dihydrate of strychnine is described by W. F. Loebisch and P. Schoop, who also give an account of a fluorescent derivative of this alkaloid prepared by distilling strychnine with zinc-dust. The constitution of brucine has been further investigated by A. Hanssen, who arrives at the conclusion that this base contains dimethoxyphenylpyridine in addition to a quinoline-group. A recent report on morphine by D. B. Dott and R. Stockman deals with the methyl-, ethyl-, and acetyl-derivatives of this base, and shows that methylmorphine (codeine), prepared from morphine, agrees as perfectly with codeine from opium in its physiological properties as it does in its chemical and physical characters. The same physiological properties are shared by ethylmorphine; but dimethylmorphine is found to be quite dissimilar in its action from the morphine group; while in the acetyl-derivative the difference from morphine consists merely in a slight increase of the narcotic and tetanizing effects. In another paper, D. B. Dott refers to the meconates of morphine, and records the result of experiments rendering the existence of an acid meconate very doubtful. F. Ditzler has investigated the behaviour of morphine towards potassium chromate, and finds that solutions of salts of this alkaloid, when shaken with excess of potassium chromate, give a precipitate of morphine; whilst morphine chromate is precipitated when only very small quantities of the reagent are gradually added. The British Medical Journal publishes an observation to the effect that a solution of morphine hydrochlorate, which had been employed subcutaneously, was found, eleven months later, to produce violent emetic effects, due to the spontaneous formation of apomorphine. No such change, however, has been noticed by other observers; and in the absence of confirma tory evidence on this point, the statement in question should be received with due reservation. The conversion of morphine into pseudomorphine may be readily effected, according to O. Hesse, by adding a solution of potassium hydrate and potassium ferricyanide, containing two molecular weights of the former to one of the latter, to a solution of pure morphine hydrochlorate in forty parts of water. The same author now accepts Polstorff's formula for pseudomorphine in the place of the one previously proposed by himself. G. Goldschmiedt defends the formula Cao H21 NO,, against Ca Ha N O, as found by other chemists, and is supported in this view by R. Jahoda. Recent researches on thebaïne, by W. C. Howard and W. Roser, confirm the conclusion that this body is a tertiary base, and that it may be regarded as the dimethyl ether of morphothebaïne. Additional information respecting the alkaloid cryptopine is furnished by E. Kauder in a communication read before the British Pharmaceutical Conference. A paper by P. C. Plugge deals with the opium alkaloids in general and with the classification and arrangement of these bases in accordance with their properties and reactions. 21 It will be remembered that the substance which, under the name of "hopeine," was brought to the notice of the profession (Year-Book of Pharmacy, 1886, 57), as a crystallizable narcotic alkaloid obtained from wild American hops, was subsequently proved to consist of morphine and a variable proportion of another base. W. Williamson now applies this name to the alkaloid distinct from morphine, and gives a description of its properties; but the subject still remains in an unsatisfactory condition calling for further investigation. Continuing his experiments on the preparation of aconitine, J. Williams has elaborated a new process consisting in the exhaustion of the ground root of Aconitum Napellus with amyl alcohol, the removal of the alkaloid from the solution thus obtained by shaking with acidulated water, its subsequent precipitation from the acid liquid by means of sodium carbonate, and final purification of the product by crystallization from ether. A careful investigation of emetine leads H. Kunz to the conclusion that this substance is a biacid base and a tertiary diamine, like quinine. He considers that its elementary composition is represented by the formula C30 H40 Na Os, which differs by C, from that attributed to the alkaloid by Lefort and Wurtz. It is thought probable that emetine, like quinine, is a quinoline derivative. 2 In a contribution to the recent meeting of the British Pharma |