Poisons, Their Effects and Detection / A Manual for the Use of Analytical Chemists and Experts

by Alexander Wynter Blyth

THE BENZENE RESIDUE DERIVED FROM THE AMMONIACAL SOLUTION.

1. It is for the most part Crystalline.	2. It is for the most part Amorphous.
a. Sulphuric acid dissolves it without colour, the solution being coloured neither on standing nor on the addition of nitric acid.	a. Pure sulphuric acid dissolves it either whitish-red or yellowish.
aa. It dilates the pupil of a cat.
α. Platin chloride does not precipitate the aqueous solution. The sulphuric acid solution gives, on warming, a peculiar smell.	α. The solution becomes by nitric acid immediately red, then quickly orange.
Atropine.	Brucine.
β. Platin chloride applied to the solution precipitates.	β. The solution becomes by little and little brownish-red. The substance is coloured red by chloride of lime solution, and it contracts the pupil.
Hyoscyamine.	Physostigmine.
bb. It does not dilate the pupil.
α. The sulphuric acid solution becomes blue by chromate of potash.
αα. The substance applied to a frog produces tetanus.
Strychnine.
ββ. It lowers the number of respirations in a frog.
Ethyl and Methyl Strychnine.
β. Sulphuric acid and bichromate of potash do not colour it blue.
αα. The sulphuric acid watery solution is fluorescent, and becomes green on the addition of chlorine water and ammonia.
Quinine and Cinchonine.
(The last is more difficult to dissolve in petroleum ether than quinine.)
ββ. The solution is not fluorescent.
Cinchonine.
b. Sulphuric acid dissolves it at first colourless; the solution takes on standing a rose or violet-blue; on addition of nitric acid, a blood-red or brown coloration.	b. Pure sulphuric acid dissolves it yellow, and the solution becomes later beautiful red (with delphinine, more quickly a darker cherry-red.)
α. A solution in diluted sulphuric acid becomes, on heating, gradually deep blood-red, and, when cooled, violet, with nitric acid. The aqueous solution is precipitated by ammonia.	α. The hydrochloric acid solution becomes red on heating.
Narcotine.
	αα. The substance acts on a frog, causing, in large doses, tetanus.
	Veratrine.
	ββ. It is almost without action on frogs.
	Sabatrin.
β. The solution in diluted sulphuric acid becomes, on heating, a beautiful blue. Excess of ammonia does not precipitate in a diluted watery solution.	β. The hydrochloric acid solution does not, on heating, become red.
Codeine.	Delphinine.
c. Sulphuric acid dissolves it with the production of a yellow colour.	c. Pure sulphuric acid dissolves it yellow, and the solution becomes later red-brown, and gradually violet-red.
α. The solution remains yellow on standing.	α. The substance even in small doses paralyses frogs, and dilates the pupil of a cat’s eye. Ether dissolves it with difficulty.
Acolyctin.	Nepalin.
β. It becomes beautifully red.	β. It is easily soluble in ether, its effects are not so marked, and it does not dilate the pupil.
Sabadilline.	Aconitine.
	γ. Its effects are still feeble; it does not dilate the pupil, and is with difficulty dissolved by ether.
	Napellin.
d. Sulphuric acid dissolves it with an immediate deep red-brown colour.	d. Sulphuric acid dissolves it with a dark green colour, and the solution becomes, even after a few seconds, a beautiful blood-red.
Thebaine.	Alkaloidal substances out of the Aconitum lycoctonum.
e. Sulphuric acid dissolves it immediately blue.	e. Sulphuric acid dissolves it brown-green, and Fröhde’s reagent red, becoming beautifully green.
Substances accompanying the Papaverins.	Emetine.

IX. SHAKING OF THE AMMONIACAL WATERY SOLUTION WITH CHLOROFORM.

This extracts the remainder of the cinchonine and papaverine, narceine, and a small portion of morphine, as well as an alkaloid from the celandine.

The Residue from the Chloroform.

aa. The solution, on warming, is only slightly coloured.

α. But, after it is again cooled, it strikes with nitric acid a violet-blue; chloride of iron mixed with the substance gives a blue colour; Fröhde’s reagent also dissolves it violet.

Morphine.

β. It is not coloured by nitric acid; it is also indifferent to chloride of iron.

Cinchonine.

bb. The solution becomes by warming violet-blue.

Papaverine.

γ. Sulphuric acid dissolves it greenish-brown, and the solution becomes, on standing, blood-red.

Narceine.

δ. Sulphuric acid dissolves it a violet-blue.

Alkaloidal constituent of the Celandine.

X. SHAKING UP OF THE WATERY FLUID WITH AMYL ALCOHOL.

From this process, besides morphine and solanine, as well as salicin, the remnants of the convallamarin, saponin, senegin, and narceine are also to be expected.

The Amyl Alcohol Residue.

a. Sulphuric acid dissolves it without colour in the cold.

Morphine (see above).

b. Sulphuric acid dissolves it with the production of a clear yellow-red and the solution becomes brownish. Iodine water colours it a deep brown. The alcoholic solution gelatinises.

Solanine.

c. Sulphuric acid dissolves it green-brown, becoming red.

Narceine (see above).

d. Sulphuric acid dissolves it yellow, then brown-red, becoming violet on dilution with water. Hydrochloric acid dissolves it, and it becomes red on warming. It stops the heart-action in the systole.

Convallamarin.

e. Hydrochloric acid dissolves it for the most part without colour.

Saponin.

f. As the foregoing, but acting more feebly.

Senegin.

g. Sulphuric acid dissolves it immediately a pure red. On warming with sulphuric acid and bichromate of potash, a smell of salicylic acid is developed.

Salicin.