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III.—On the Constitution of Codeine and its Products of Decomposition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2013

Thomas Anderson
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Extract

During the last few years, great progress has been made in the study of the organic alkalies, and the discovery of methods by which these substances can be artificially produced, and the long train of investigations by which it has been followed, has greatly extended our previous information, and afforded us some definite ideas regarding their constitution. The advance made has, however, related entirely to the volatile bases produced by artificial processes, and our knowledge of the natural fixed alkaloids stands very much where it did some years since, and is still very imperfect, and in regard to many entirely fragmentary; so much so, indeed, that of all the alkaloids of this class described in chemical works, there are not perhaps a dozen of which the constitution can be considered as definitely fixed, and not half that number of which we know the products of decomposition. The fact is, that the interest attaching to the artificial bases has altogether diverted the attention of chemists from the natural alkalies, which have not hitherto proved a very productive field of inquiry; at least the researches to which many of them were subjected ten or fifteen years since, proved comparatively unfruitful in their results.

Type
Transactions
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , 1853 , pp. 57 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1853

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References

page 58 note * In the case of Robiquet and Will's analyses, the details of the experiment are not given. I have, therefore, been obliged to convert the per centage of carbon into carbonic acid, according to the old equivalent of carbon, and recalculate it into carbon according to the new equivalent.

page 58 note † Annales de Chimie et de Physique, vol. li., p 265.

page 58 note ‡ Ibid., vol. lix., p. 158.

page 58 note § Ibid., vol. lxviii., p. 136.

page 58 note ∥ Annalen der Chimie und Pharmacie, vol. xxvi., p. 44.

page 58 note ¶ Ibid.

page 58 note ** Revue Scientifique, vol. x., p. 203.

page 59 note * Annalen der Chimie und Pharmacie, vol. lxv., p. 218.

page 66 note * Annalen der Chimie und Pharmacie, vol. lxv., p. 218.

page 69 note * The constitution and properties of this substance will be detailed in a future communication.

page 83 note * I may at the same time mention, that I have convinced myself that the petinine described by me two years since as existing in bone-oil, is represented by the formula C8 H11 N, and not by C8 H10 N, which I then gave for it. Indeed, my analysis of the platinum salt, which is most to be depended upon, tallies equally well with either formula. I have also ascertained the existence of ethylamine and methylamine in bone-oil. The details of these experiments will be contained in the second part of my paper on the Products of the Destructive Distillation of Animal Matters.

page 84 note * The action of nitric acid on the organic alkalies, in this point of view, is now under investigation in my laboratory. Narcotine has been found to undergo a precisely similar change, yielding a compound, which gives off a volatile base by ebullition with potash, and a whole series of other substances, the constitution of which will be detailed so soon as the investigations are completed.