Lassen, who used
hydrochloric acid, discovered the true products of the splitting up of
atropine, viz., tropic acid, C_{9}H_{8}O_{3}, and tropine, C_{8}H_{15}N,
and proved at the same time that atropic acid is easily formed by the
action of boiling baryta water on tropic acid, while hydrochloric acid
at all temperatures forms isatropic acid, an isomer of atropic acid.
Kraut confirmed these results, and showed that atropic acid as well as
cinnamic acid gives benzoic acid by oxidation, and hydratropic acid (the
isomer of phenylpropionic acid) by reduction with sodium amalgam. These
results are sufficient to show that tropic acid may have one of the
following two formulae.
I II
CH_{2}OH CH_{3}
/ /
C_{4}H_{5}CH or C_{8}H_{5}--C--OH
\ \
OOHO COOH
Fittig and Wurster, who discovered atrolactic acid, C_{2}H_{10}O_{3},
an isomer of tropic acid, gives tropic acid the second formula, while
Burgheimar and myself have shown that it is the true formula of
atrolactic acid.
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