tion.
Step two is about converting succindialdehyde into tropinine. Also involved is the addition of precise amounts of water, methylamine hydrochloride, acetonedicarboxylic acid, disodium phosphate and ether.
Step three involves the making of 2 carbomethoxytropinine. This is done using sodium methoxide, dimethylcarbonate, tulene, ammonium chloride, chloroform, potassium carbonate, potassium hydroxide, and ammonium chloride. The process is intricate and needs to be followed with precision.
Alternately, a second method of producing 2-carbomethoxytropinine is supplied, beginning with methylecgonine. This process is just as long and tedious as the first process but somehow, in the parlance of the times it was written in, less suspicious.
Step four involves combining methylecgonine with benzoic anhydride with benzene and hydrochloric acid to yield cocaine. Although designed to go step by step, the reader is left wondering about the true simplicity of
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