I9IS] Jacob Rosenhloom 93 



260 days; Taylor^^ after 14 months; Kauzmann^^ after 40 days; 

 Stevenson^" after 60 days ; Tidy^^ after 90 days ; Pauzer/^ in two 

 cases, after 6 months; Witthaus,^^ in two cases, after 43 and 53 

 days, respectively; Autenreith^^ after 15 months and Strzyzowski^' 

 after 5 months. 



Faust's^® experiments are also of great interest in this connection. 

 He found that, after the hypodermic injection of moderate amounts 

 of morphine into dogs, about 66 percent could be extracted from 

 the feces. By gradually increasing the dose, this amount dimin- 

 ished until, after a time, no morphine was excreted in the urine or 

 feces; and after the death of the animals, none could be extracted 

 from the organs. He thinks that habituation to morphine is due to 

 increased capacity of the tissues to destroy it. 



From the results of Autenreith's and Strzyzowski's experiments 

 it appears, however, that morphine undergoes decomposition, which 

 is more extensive with aerobic than with anaerobic putrefaction. 

 Strzyzowski estimates that under certain conditions of putrefac- 

 tion, 0,5 gm, of morphine mixed with putrefying material would be 

 detectable after 800 days. However it is possible that the effect of 

 the dead cells on morphine is not comparable to the effects of living 

 cells in regard to its oxidation or change into a form or forms that 

 would not be detectable. 



The absence of morphine from the liver in the case studied by 

 myself indicates (i) that the morphine was so changed in the or- 

 ganism, under conditions as yet unknown, that it was impossible to 

 detect morphine, and (2) that such a change is marked in cases of 

 habituation to the alkaloid. 



28 Taylor : On Poisons, 3d ed., p. 556. 



29 Kauzmann : Dragendorflf's Beiträge, p. 131. 



30 Stevenson : Lancet, 1903, ii, p. 1443. 

 3iTidy: Med. Times and Gazette, 1868, i, p. 497. 



32 Pauzer : Zeit. f. Unt. d. Nähr. u. Genuss., 1902, v, p. 8. 



33 Witthaus: Toxicology, 191 1, p. 982. 



3* Autenreith : Ber. d. deut. pharm. Gesell., 1901, xi, p. 494. 



35 Strzyzowski : Dissert, Lausanne, 1899. 



36 Faust : Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 1900, xliv, p. 217. 



