Alkaloid
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a substance resembling an alkali in properties. Alkaloids are natural organic bases containing nitrogen, and having high molecular weights. They occur in many plants, and some in animal tissues; they have not, except conine, been formed by synthesis. They are substitution compounds of ammonia; most are tertiary amines. They have mostly a bitter taste, act powerfully on the animal system, and are used in medicine as quinine, morphine, and strychnine; they are frequently violent poisons. ALLAH (compounded of the article al and ilâhi. e., "the god," a word cognate with the Hebrew Eloah), the Arabic name of the supreme god among the heathen Arabs, adopted by Mohammed for the one true God. See MOHAMMED and MOHAMMEDANISM. ALLAHABAD. (1) A division of British India; has an area of 17,264 square miles, is one of the most fertile and populous portions of India. (2) A district of the above division, lying around the junction of the Jumna and Ganges. Area 2,852 square miles. (3) The capital of the division of Allahabad; at the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna; seat of government of the Northwestern provinces; 72 miles W. of Benares. It carries on a large trade, especially in sugar, cotton, indigo, gold and silver ornaments, and furniture. It is a resort of Hindu pilgrims and the seat of an annual fair, usually attended by about 250,000 persons. Among the principal buildings are the fort founded by Akbar Khan in 1575, the Juma Masjid mosque, Sultan Khusru's caravansary, and the Muir Central College (1874). The town was taken by the British in 1765, and assigned by them to the titular Emperor of Delhi, but transferred to the Nawab of Oudh in 1771, who restored it to the British in 1801. It suffered severely during the mutiny of 1857. Pop. about 170,000.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's told readers in 1921 that alkaloids "have not, except conine, been formed by synthesis" — coniine, the hemlock poison, having been made by Ladenburg in 1886. That barrier fell repeatedly over the following decades: Robert Robinson had in fact already assembled tropinone, the core of atropine, in a single flask in 1917, Woodward and Doering reported a route toward quinine in 1944, Gates synthesised morphine in 1952, and Woodward's strychnine followed in 1954. Chemists have also traced how plants build these molecules, and modern definitions are looser than the entry's "substitution compounds of ammonia; most are tertiary amines." The medical roster has grown too: the periwinkle alkaloids vincristine and vinblastine became standard cancer chemotherapy from the 1960s.
Written for this edition, 2026.