1. Morphia. To procure this alkaloid, Serturner precipitated a watery solution of opium by ammonia, dissolved the precipitate in diluted sulphuric acid, precipitated this sulphate again by ammonia, and then boiled the last precipitate in alcohol, and crystallized. Robiquet obtained morphia by making a concentrated solution of opium, which he boiled for a quarter of an hour with a small quantity of magnesia. A greyish precipitate forms, which is to be separated by filtration, washed on the filter. with cold water, dried, and then digested for some time with weak spirit, in a moderate heat, in order to separate the colouring matter. The residue is now again to be separated by the filter, washed with a little cold alcohol, and then boiled in a larger quantity of rectified alcohol: on filtering the solution whilst it is yet boiling, morphia, beautifully crystallized, and almost free from colour, is deposited as it cools. By repeating the last part of the operation three or four times, with the residue of the previous boilings, the whole of the morphia is obtained. The following process, proposed by M. Hottot, is often preferred to that of Robiquet:-MaceratePapaver Red Poppy Part 5 287 vij. of opium in a sufficient quantity of cold water to exhaust the residuum, and evaporate the liquors to sp. gr. 1.012; when half cooled, add grs. xxiv 1/2. of ammonia, and allow the precipitate, which is chiefly greasy matter, to fall; then decant, and again add 141 grains of ammonia, and leave the mixture to deposit the precipitate for 12 hours; after which filter, wash the residuum with cold water, and treat it with fPapaver Red Poppy Part 5 288 xv. of alcohol of sp. gr. .847, and grains 141 of animal charcoal, in a sand-bath; and when the alcohol boils1, filter. As it cools, the morphia will crystallize. Many other processes have been devised: for that ordered by the Pharmacopoeia of the London College, see Part III.

The salt, when it is well prepared, is colourless, bitter, inodorous, and crystallized in irregular six-sided prisms with dihedral summits, nearly insipid. It burns like vegetable matter, leaving carbon as a residue; restores, like the alkalies, the colour of reddened turnsole paper, browns turmeric paper, and readily combines with acids, forming neutral salts.2 It is nearly insoluble in water; not very soluble in hot water, nor even in cold alcohol, nor in ether; but it is readily soluble in the two latter fluids in the boiling state; the salt being again precipitated in crystals as the solutions cool. It is soluble also in oil, both fixed and volatile. As an alkali, it holds the next place to ammonia, having less affinity for the acids than either that salt or magnesia. Its ultimate components are, according to Dumas and Pelletier, 72.02 of carbon, 5.57 of nitrogen, 7.61 of hydrogen, and 14.34 of oxygen, in 100 parts3; or, according to Liebeg, of 34 eq. = 208.08 of carbon+ 18 eq. of hydrogen + 1 eq. = 14.15 of nitrogen + 6 eq. = 48 of oxygen; making the equivalent 288*23. Morphia, being scarcely soluble in water or in the fluids of the stomach in its uncombined state, does not display in a striking manner its properties when it is administered alone; but these are very striking when it is combined with an acid, particularly the acetic, the citric, the hydrochloric, and meconic; with the latter of which it exists naturally in opium in a state of combination as a bimeconate: and although nearly tasteless when pure, yet the salts which it forms with acids are intensely bitter.

Strong nitric acid strikes a blood-red with morphia, and decomposes it, converting it into oxalic acid : with persalts of iron it strikes a blue tint.

1 Journ. de Pharm. 475.

2 The following are the characters of the neutral compounds of morphia which may be medicinally employed. The acetate of morphia crystallizes in soft, silky prisms, which are very soluble. The sulphate in arborescent or branching crystals, soluble in two parts of water at 60°. The carbonate in short prismatic crystals, soluble in four parts of water at 60°. The hydrochlorate in radiated tufts, very soluble in cold water, but scarcely soluble in alcohol.

3 Ann. de Chimie, t. xxiv. p. 185.

2. Meconic acid may be obtained in a separate state by various processes.-a. By precipitating an aqueous solution of opium by means of acetate of lead, which throws down a meconate of that metal. This is to be well washed with distilled water, and decomposed by passing through it a stream of sulphu-reted hydrogen gas, filtering and evaporating the fluid. Meconic acid crystallizes in small amber-coloured crystals. b. By precipitating an aqueous solution of opium by chloride of barium, washing the precipitate, and then decomposing it with diluted sulphuric acid, which forms an insoluble salt with the baryta, and sets free the meconic acid. To obtain it pure the crystals procured by evaporating the solution are to be combined with potassa, and the meconate thus formed is to be decomposed by hydrochloric acid. Meconic acid has an acid taste, and reaction. It is soluble in water and alcohol; its solutions strike a deep red with the persalts of iron, and an emerald green with sulphate of copper. It is a compound of 7 eq. = 42.84 carbon + 2 eq. hydrogen + 7 eq. = 56 of oxygen, making the equivalent = 100.84. Meconic acid exerts no action on the animal system.

3. Narcotina is generally procured in conjunction with morphia, but easily separated by ether, which does not act on morphia, at a temperature of 600.1 Narcotina may be readily procured by acting on the residue of opium, exhausted by water, with acetic acid, filtering, and precipitating the solution by liquor potassae. This precipitate well washed, and treated with boiling alcohol yields crystallized narcotina, which may be purified by re-solution in alcohol and treating it with animal charcoal. When pure, it is colourless, tasteless, inodorous, and crystallizes in flexible, acicular crystals: insoluble in cold water, but soluble in 400 parts of boiling water. It is scarcely soluble in cold alcohol, but dissolves in 24 of boiling alcohol: and very freely in ether, and the fixed and volatile oils. It combines, but slightly, with acids, and forms very bitter salts, easily decomposed. It is readily distinguished from morphia by staining heated paper like resin, by not reddening nitric acid, nor giving blueness to the per-salts of iron.