92 Transformation of Morphine in the Body [March, 



BabeP^ claims that morphine is oxidized by brain pulp in vitro, 

 Cloetta^'^ previously supposed that nerve tissue is vitally active in 

 this direction. Rübsamen^^ could not verify in rats or rabbits the 

 results of Babel's experiments. Tauber/^ by perfusion experiments 

 on the Hver and kidney of pigs, found that these organs could not 

 oxidize morphine, but Gerard and Ricquet^^ showed that, by macera- 

 tion with horse kidney pulp, morphine is oxidized to oxidimorphine 

 and the latter is also reduced to the former. 



It may be readily noted that there is considerable difference of 

 opinion on the question of the transformation of morphine in the 

 body. I recently obtained the liver, three hours after death, of a 

 woman who had used large amounts of laudanum for about five 

 years. It seemed of interest to determine whether morphine was 

 present in this organ. A careful search for morphine by Dragen- 

 dorfif's process, as described by Witthaus,^*^ showed that it was 

 absent. As a control, 150 mg. of morphine sulfate were added to a 

 liver; the same amount of morphine sulfate was isolated, proving 

 that the technic was good. This result indicates the possibility that 

 morphine is so changed in the body, that, under conditions as yet 

 unknown, it cannot be recovered. 



However, I have shown with Dr. S. R. Mills^^ that, under certain 

 conditions, morphine withstands decomposition in the presence of 

 putrefying material. Ogier^^ states that he has frequently failed to 

 detect morphine in viscera, which had contained it, after putrefac- 

 tion for f rom two weeks to one month. Tardieu^^ found morphine in 

 putrefying viscera after 45 days; Nagelvoort'^^ after 50 days; 

 Marme^^ after 8 weeks; Marquis^® after 2 months; Proelss^'^ after 



16 Babel : Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 1905, lii, p. 262. 

 ^"^ Cloetta : Virchow's Arch., 1866, xxxv, p. 369. 



18 Tauber : Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 1890, xxvii, p. 336. 



19 Gerard and Ricquet : Compt. rend. soc. bioL, 1904, Ivi, p. 904. 



20 Witthaus : Loc. cit. 



21 Rosenbloom and Mills : Jour. Biol, Chem., 1913, xvi, p. 327. 



22 Ogier : Chim. Tox., 1899, p. 567. 



23 Tardieu : Empoisonnement, 2d ed., p. 1043. 



24 Nagelvoort : Amer. Jr. Pharm., 1896, Ixviii, p. 374. 



25 Marme : Zeit. f. anal. Chem., 1883, xxii, p. 635. 



26 Marquis : Dissert., Dorpat, 1896, p. 159. 



27 Proelss : Apoth. Zeit., 1901, xvi, p. 492. 



