“In the investigation of the vegetable alkalies which I have made for the new edition of my Hand-Book, I consider myself to have established, in a satisfactory manner, that the alkaline constituent of these substances is ammonia, coupled with a variety of different compounds, such as carbo-hydrogens, organic oxides, chlorides, oxychlorides, sulphurets, amides, and even saline compounds. The ammonia in these substances can be converted into amide, ammonium, or oxide of ammonium, under different circumstances. Although, however, I conceive we are now on the right road with the basic constituent of the alkaloids, we are still very much in the dark with regard to the substances which are coupled with the ammonia. The investigation of these will be a much more difficult problem, if, indeed, we ever succeed in solving it.