Considine

“ I am quite convinced that every Chemist who has kept up his knowledge as to analysis, will not only succeed in detecting their presence, but even in determining the nature of that which he has discovered, provided that the alkaloid in question is one of that class of bodies, the properties of which have been suitably studied. Thus he will be able to discover conia, nicotine, aniline, picoline, petinine, morphine, codeine, narcotine, strychnine, brucine, veratrine, colchicine, delphine, emetine, solanine, aconitine, atropine, hyoscyamine. ”

“ However, there was the quinine against the fever. I went into the spare cabin where the medicine chest was kept to prepare two doses. I opened it full of faith as a man opens a miraculous shrine. The upper part was inhabited by a collection of bottles, all square-shouldered and as like each other as peas. Under that orderly array there were two drawers, stuffed as full of things as one could imagine—paper packages, bandages, cardboard boxes officially labelled. The lower of the two, in one of its compartments, contained our provision of quinine. ”

“ Sir Clinton put in. “Atropine, or something akin to it. The eye-pupils of the body were dilated.”
Markfield considered for a moment.
“I've done some alkaloid work in my time,” he explained, “but I suppose in a case of this kind you ought to have the best man. Some of the alkaloids are the very devil to spot when you've only a small quantity. I'd like the fee for the case, of course,” he added with a faint smile, “but the truth is that Dr. Silverdale, my chief, is an alkaloid specialist. ”

“ Other Coniine Bases.—Methyl- and ethyl-coniine have been prepared synthetically, and are both similar in action to coniine, but somewhat more like curarine. By the reduction of coniine with zinc dust conyrine (C8H11N) is formed; between coniine and conyrine stands coniceine (C8H15NO) . De Coninck has made synthetically by the addition of 6 atoms of hydrogen to β collidine, a new fluid alkaloid (C8H11N + 6H = C8H17N) , which he has called isocicutine: it has the same formula as coniine. Paraconiine Schiff prepared synthetically from ammonia and normal butyl aldehyde ”

“ Quinidine or Conquinine—forms crystals having the composition, C20H24N2O2 + 2 OH2; the anhydrous alkaloid melts at 168° C., and requires about 30 parts of ether for solution. Its solutions are strongly dextrogyre; it agrees with quinine as regards bitterness, fluorescence and the thalleioquin test, and forms a neutral and an acid sulphate. The most striking character of quinidine is afforded by its hydriodate, the crystals of which require for solution at 15° C., 1250 parts of water or 110 parts of alcohol sp. gr. ”

“ On warming conine with sulphuric acid and potassium bichromate butyric acid is produced, and can be recognised by its peculiar odour.
3. If conine be added to a solution of alloxan a reddish-purple colour is produced in a few minutes, and white needle-shaped crystals form on standing. These crystals if dissolved in caustic potash solution produce a purple colour, and the odour of conine is given off.
Treatment.—Emetics, stomach pump, castor-oil, followed by ammonia and other diffusible stimulants. Artificial respiration should be resorted to and kept up for a long time. ”

“ In addition to these experiments, we have made some observations clinically. To eighteen adults—fourteen men and four women—we ordered ten grains of the pure nitrite of sodium in an ounce of water, and of these seventeen declared that they were unable to take it.... One man, a burly, strong fellow, suffering from a little rheumatism only, said that after taking the first dose he ‘felt giddy,’ as if he would ‘go off insensible.’ His lips, face, and hands turned blue, and he had to lie down for an hour and a half before he dared move. ”

“ Quinin.—A considerable quantity of the urine is rendered alkaline with ammonia and extracted with ether; the ether is evaporated, and a portion of the residue dissolved in about twenty drops of dilute alcohol. The alcoholic solution is acidulated with dilute sulphuric acid, a drop of an alcoholic solution of iodin (tincture of iodin diluted about ten times) is added, and the mixture is warmed. Upon cooling, an iodin compound of quinin (herapathite) will separate out in the form of a microcrystalline sediment of green plates. ”

“ I must in justice state that I was using some quinine at this time to break up a fever that was continually attacking me, and that I was then again using morphia by means of the hypodermic syringe (having been induced to adopt that mode by another person who was using it in the same way,—which I found to be much more injurious than taking it per mouth) ; nevertheless, it was still the opium habit, and it was that which induced the fever, and made necessary the quinine. ”

“ He states, that he has found a peculiar narcotic principle in all the narcotic plants; as belladonna, hyosciamus, conium, stramonium, chelidonium, digitalis, &c. The narcotic principles are readily soluble in alcohol, ether, acids, and water, and of a highly offensive odour. This odour is so great in the principle of conium, that it is almost impossible for an individual of an irritable habit, to remain in the room, where there is an etherial solution, containing only a few grains of it. The smell of such a solution is equal to the smell, arising from twenty or thirty pounds of the plants. ”

“ If the points of the compasses are unequally heated, the sensation of two contacts becomes confused. An anaemic condition, or a state of venous con gestion, or the application of cold, or violent stretching of the skin, or the use of such substances as atropine, daturin, morphia, strychnine, alcohol, bromide of potassium, cannabin, and hydrate of chloral blunt sensibility. The only active substance said to increase it is caffein. Absolute sensitiveness, as indicated by a sense of pressure, has been determined by various methods. ”

“ Whatever there may have been in the body before, certainly they produced a cadaveric ptomaine conine. For many animal tissues and fluids, especially if somewhat decomposed, yield not infrequently compounds of an oily nature with a mousey odour, fuming with hydrochloric acid and in short, acting just like conine. There is ample evidence, I have found, that conine or a substance possessing most, if not all, of its properties is at times actually produced in animal tissues by decomposition. ”

“ Injection of quinine.—— In any type of fever, if vomiting is persistent, if the brain is affected, or if the patient is insensible and cannot or will not swallow, recourse must be had to rectal, or intramuscular, or intravenous injection of quinine. In all cases in which life is in imminent danger, and in which the earliest possible action of the drug is of importance, it must be so administered. ”

“ This solution is lastly to be filtered, and set aside to cool, when crystals of the sulphate of quinine will form. Mr. Garden informs me, that the largest portion of the sulphate of quinine which he has been able to prepare from the best yellow bark, is as one to fifty.
[9] Opium is to be digested in cold water, and the solution filtered. Pure ammonia is to be added to this liquid so long as a precipitate is produced. Impure morphine is thus obtained, which may be purified by dissolving it in acetic acid, and digesting it with animal charcoal. ”

“ The young animal, therefore, receives in the form of caseine,—which is distinguished from fibrine and albumen by its great solubility, and by not coagulating when heated,—the chief constituent of the mother's blood. To convert caseine into blood no foreign substance is required, and in the conversion of the mother's blood into caseine, no elements of the constituents of the blood have been separated. When chemically examined, caseine is found to contain a much larger proportion of the earth of bones than blood does, and that in a very soluble form, capable of reaching every part of the body. ”

“ In fighting constipation we must therefore constantly change our weapons: one night we use mineral oil, the next night cascara sagrada, the third night an enema, the fourth night a glycerin injection or suppository, the fifth night perhaps nothing at all, the sixth night a blue mass pill, the seventh morning a Seidlitz powder, then a rest for a day or two, then a repetition of the same measures. ”

“ The officinal preparations are—the leaves, the fruit, a tincture of the fruit, an extract of the leaves, the juice of the leaves (Succus conii) , a compound hemlock pill (composed of extract of hemlock, ipecacuanha, and treacle) , an inhalation of coniine (Vapor conii) , and a poultice (Cataplasma conii) made with the leaves.
§ 322. Statistics of Coniine Poisoning.—F. A. Falck [346] has been able to collect 17 cases of death recorded in medical literature, up to the year 1880, from either coniine or hemlock. ”

“ The poisonous properties reside in an alkaloid, conine. The activity of the plant appears to depend upon the time of the year when it is gathered, being most powerful in May. The ready decomposition of the alkaloid by heat or age renders the extract of conium a very uncertain preparation, the conine being converted into an inert resinoid matter.
Conine the alkaloid is a colourless volatile oil, lighter than water, with an odour of mice. It is strongly alkaline, soluble in diluted acid, but its salts have not yet been crystallised. ”

“ The maid would believe that from Silverdale, and she'd put the hyoscine into the cup quite innocently. If the worst came to the worst, and the cups got mixed, then young Hassendean would get the dose instead.”
“It's asking a bit too much, I'm afraid. Remember it was a heavy over-dose that was given.”
“Everybody's liable to make a mistake, sir.”
“True. And I suppose you'd say that after the murder at the bungalow Silverdale awoke to the fact that the maid's evidence about the hyoscine would hang him, probably; so he went back and murdered her also.” ”

“ As a matter of humanity, blood may be drawn from under the eye, and the eye bathed in tepid water, and occasionally with a weak solution of the sulphate of zinc combined with tincture of opium. These latter applications diminish the pain, and hasten the cure. ”

“ Note.—The Eclectic Physicians use equal parts of Quinine and Prussiate of Iron, with marked success in agues, giving from one to three grains of the mixture at a dose, every two hours, or oftener, for ten or twelve hours, and some times more, during the intermission. An intelligent Homœopathic Physician informs me that he has used with uniform success, a trituration of this mixture of Quinine and Prussiate of Iron, in proportion of ten grains of the Sugar of Milk to one of the Mixture, giving the trituration in doses of about one grain every hour through the chill, fever and intermission. ”

“ What are the indications of sulphate of quinine in yellow fever? There must be at least remission, if there is not complete intermission of the fever. Its application is then excluded from the continued type. When the fever has yielded, by the use of the medicines of which we have spoken, or when, with sweat or moisture of the skin, the pulse has sensibly lowered, the employment of quinine is always good. Its effect will be shown, for the strongest reason, in the intermittent type. ”

“ In cases where Chininum sulph. failed in intermittent fevers, I prescribe Brom. arsen. twice daily, four drops, each time in a full glass of water, gradually diminishing it to one daily dose, and in four weeks even the most obstinate cases yielded to this treatment. The patient feels encouraged by his increasing vigor, the fever-cakes disappear, the bowels move regularly, and appetite leaves nothing to be desired. Those mean obstinate cases of intermittens larvata, often appearing in the form of unbearable neuralgiæ, yield more rapidly to it than to the Quinine. ”

“ The slight variation between the composition claimed for Sanatogen and the composition as determined by chemical analysis is of minor importance. Whether there is 83 per cent. of casein as found by the Association’s chemists or 95 per cent. as asserted by the manufacturers matters little. The important fact is that casein makes up about nine-tenths of the preparation and, as must be perfectly evident, Sanatogen derives whatever food value it may have from that casein. ”

“ Of course any other acid would precipitate the caseine; still I give the preference to the acetic from the fact that it does not affect the after-process of rendering the paper sensitive, that acid entering into the composition of the sensitive solution.
"After boiling for five or ten minutes, the liquid should be allowed to cool, and then be strained through a hair sieve or a piece of muslin, to collect the caseine: when quite cold, the chemicals are to be added. ”

“ Conine, on oxidation, yields chiefly butyric acid, but among the products of oxidation has been found the pyridine carboxylic acid before referred to. The formula of conine, C8H17N, shows it to be homologous with piperidine, C5H11N, a derivative of piperine, the alkaloid of pepper, to be spoken of later; and, just as piperidine is derived from pyridine by the action of reducing agents, so conine is probably derived from a propyl-pyridine. The artificial alkaloid paraconine, isomeric with the natural conine, will be referred to later. ”

“ The Acetic Acid and Ammonia become neutralized by combination with each other, affording a compound of new virtues. Sulphate of Zinc, and Acetate of Lead, when mixed together in solution, decompose each other, and the Acetate of Zinc which is formed, affords a more valuable remedy than either of the former salts, as an application in ophthalmia. The “Mistura Ferri Composita” of our Pharmacopœia offers another example of the same chemical resource. ”