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[Read before the State Medical Society of Arkansas at the eighth annual session. Little Rock, May 30 and 31, 1883.]
Homatropine was discovered in 1879 or 1880, about which there seems to be some doubt, since both Germany and England claim the discoverer.
Merck, of Darmstadt, first made the crystallized hydrobromate, the preparation now altogether used.
According to the last edition of the U. S. Dispensatory, the alkaloid is prepared from tropine, a substance stance obtained from belladonna, in combination with amygdalic acid and diluted hydrochloric acid.
Homatropine is quite similar to atropine, both chemically and physiologically. It is not so poisonous, and can be administered in far larger doses, thus avoiding those disagreeable symptoms so common to the use of atropine in the eyes, particularly in children. The most important differences between these two articles is in their relative action and duration on the pupil and accommodation.
In 1879,