A NOTE ON THE ABSENGE OF MORPHINE FROM 



THE LIVER IN A GASE OF GHRONIG LAUD- 



ANUM ADDIGTION 



JACOB ROSENBLOOM 

 (Biochemical Laboratory of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pa.) 



There is considerable doubt regarding the nature of the transfor- 

 mations through which morphine may pass af ter its introduction into 

 the animal body. It is possible that such morphine may be changed 

 into oxidimorphine or some other derivative, or that a Compound of 

 morphine with cell material may be formed. However, in many 

 cases of undoubted poisoning by opium or morphine, it has been im- 

 possible to detect this drug or alkaloid in the tissues or organs. 

 Witthaus^ States that Lesser, in a case of post-mortem analysis, 

 f ound morphine in the urine but not elsewhere in the cadaver. Las- 

 saigne^ could not lind morphine in the liver of a dog poisoned with 

 8 oz. of Sydenham's laudanum. Christison^ mentions four cases 

 of death due to poisoning from laudanum where no trace of the 

 poison could be detected. Woodman and Tidy* could not detect 

 any alkaloid in a case of laudanum poisoning. Haines^ could find 

 no trace of morphine in the stomach in a case where lo to 15 grains 

 were taken. Haines also quotes the report of Surg.-'Maj. Ross, 

 who writes that in Bengal, in 1869, there were 45 fatal cases of 

 poisoning by opium, and an analysis was made in each instance, yet 

 in only two was opium detected in the stomach.^ 



The failures to detect morphine in the urine^ in cases of un- 



1 Witthaus and Becker: Med. Juris., Forens. Med. and Toxicol., 191 1, iv, 

 p. 977. 



2 Laissaigne : Jr. de chim. Med., 1841, p. 448. 



3 Christison : On poisons, 1845, pp. 57, 58, and 537. 



^ Woodman and Tidy : Forensic Med. and Toxicol., 1877, p. 27^' 



5 Haines : Hamilton's Legal Med., 1894, i, p. 446. 



^ It is possible that the methods of detection in these cases were faulty. 



'^Kreyssig: Dissertation, Leipzig, 1856; Vogt: Arch. d. Pharm., 1875, vii, p. 

 23; Landsberg: Pflüger's Arch., 1880, xxiii, p. 413; Burkart: Weit. Mitth. u. 

 ehr. Morph. Vergift, Bonn, 1882; Donath: Pflüger's Arch., 1886, xxviii, p. 528; 

 Von Jaksch : Prag. med. Woch., 1897, xxii, p. 477. 



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