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THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



chloride becomes quickly so attenuated 

 as to give no perceptible reaction. A 

 vegetable powder after long continued 

 percolation, still persistently gives up 

 small portions of alkaloid, so that, as a 

 rule, it is not practicable to completely 

 exhaust. This reluctance to part with 

 the latter portions of alkaloid may in 

 some cases be partly chemical from a 

 small amount of the alkaloid existing as 

 a merely insoluble salt. It is probably, 

 however, far more generally a physical 

 question due to the manner in which the 

 alkaloid or its salt is fixed in the plant 

 :ells, very much in the same way as it is 

 dtfiicult or impossible to thoroughly wash 

 an alkaloidal salt out of animal charcoal. 

 Seeing that the powdered drug does not 

 readily yield its alkaloid even to repeated 

 fresh portions of solvent, it will do so 

 much less readily and very tardily when 

 merely kept in contact with a compara- 

 tively strong solution of the alkaloid, so 

 that in any practicable length of time the 

 drug will not have passed nearly all its 

 alkaloid into solution. The next scource 

 of error is the large proportion of solution 

 from which the morphine is precipitated. 

 Morphinate of lime is readily soluble in 

 water, but it is necessary to use a rela- 

 tively large bulk of water, so that the 

 errors from mass of material, as above 

 referred to, may not be inordinately in- 

 creased. Thence it results that slight dif- 

 ferences in the solvent power of the liq- 

 uid due to variations in temperature, 

 manipulation and other circumstances, 

 must distinctly affect the yield of mor- 

 phine, which is in small proportion to the 

 mother liquid. In the next place, the 

 larger the amount of morphinate of lime 

 the greater will be the amount of ammo- 

 nia liberated by the ammonium chloride, 

 and thus the amount of morphine held in 

 solution will be increased. It is assumed 

 that morphine is insoluble in ether, but 

 I know that when freshly precipitated 

 and presumably partly amorphous, the 



alkaloid is by no means insoluble in 

 ether. This is just a possible source of 

 error. Another point as to which there 

 is some doubt, is the proper proportion 

 of ammonium chloride. The amount al- 

 ways prescribed is much in excess of 

 theory, and there is good reason to be- 

 lieve that this excess interferes with the 

 precipitation of the morphine. After all, 

 the morphine obtained in this process, 

 though usually very pure, cannot always 

 be assumed to be the pure alkaloid. 

 Wherefore some process of purification or 

 estimation must be applied, and that 

 brings the method into the same category 

 as others in which the precipitate is 

 rather less pure, but can be readily esti- 

 mated. 



In comparing the related processes of 

 Teschemacher and Smith, of Squibb, and 

 of Fliickiger, we have no hesitation in 

 rejecting the last mentioned. Its weak 

 points are the taking of an aliquot por- 

 tion of the filtrate, too much dilution, 

 and too much alcohol. Dr. Squibb's 

 method has the advantage over that of 

 Teschemacher and Smith, that it pre- 

 .scribes more definite directions, which 

 tend to constancy of results, and are to 

 be commended in an official process. On 

 the other hand, the Teschemacher and 

 Smith's method has the advantage of 

 greater concentration during the precipi- 

 tation, which minimises the loss of alka- 

 loid in that operation, and the decided 

 merit of titration of the precipitate with 

 standard acid. There has been some 

 discussion in England as to the inception 

 of the idea of estimating the alkaloid by 

 standard acid, as if it were a recent in- 

 vention. It was in constant use by the 

 late D. R. Brown, of Edinburgh, 25 years 

 ago, as I had frequent opportunity of ob- 

 serving. All the speakers at the Ameri- 

 can meetings referred in terms of com- 

 mendation of the Squibb process, and 

 deservedly so. Dr. Wainwright found 

 the results by the 1890 U. S. P. process 



