STRYCHNIN. 119 



and this quantity has served to cure even where quinin had 

 failed. The bark is abundant in the French colony of Senegal. 



Test for Opium. — Hensler (L'Union Medicale, 1848) pro- 

 poses the following test for the presence of minute quantities 

 of opium, founded upon the property of porphyroxin of being 

 reddened when heated, by dilute muriatic acid. The suspected 

 substance is to be mixed with a small portion of potassa and 

 shaken with ether. Bibulous paper is to be moistened in this 

 solution, and dried after each immersion. Dilute muriatic 

 acid is then applied, and the paper exposed to the vapor of 

 boiling water. If opium be present, the paper acquires a 

 reddish-purple tint. 



Papaverin. — This new alkaloid, discovered by Merck in 

 opium, has the formula C^oH^jNOg. It forms crystals insolu- 

 ble in water, and more soluble in hot than in cold alcohol, and 

 ether. Its salts are crystallizable. It is prepared by adding 

 soda to a decoction of opium, treating the precipitate with 

 alcohol, and evaporating the strained tincture to dryness. 

 The residue is treated with dilute acid, the liquid filtered, and 

 ammonia added. The resinous precipitate is then to be dis- 

 solved in dilute hydrochloric acid, and acetate of potassa 

 added. The resinous precipitate thus thrown down, after 

 having been washed with water, is then to be acted on with 

 boiling ether, which, on cooling, drops the papaverin in crys- 

 tals. (Liebig's Annalen, 1850.) 



Strychnin. — Molyn (Journ. de Chim. Mdd. 3) proposes the 

 following method for making pure strychnin. 8 pounds of 

 nux vomica are made into paste, with an equal weight of water, 

 and left to repose, for 3 weeks, in a temperature of 68°-78°. 

 The fermented mass is then pressed and exhausted by three 

 several boilings with water, and the expressed liquids united 

 and evaporated to 12 quarts. 9 oz. lime are next added, and 

 after a repose of 6-8 hours, the mass is "strained and pressed, 

 and the resulting liquid treated with sulphuric acid to remove 

 lime, filtered, and evaporated to 2 qts. and subjected to a second 

 treatment as before, with 1 oz. lime. The precipitates, after 

 the entire expulsion of all liquid by pressure, are to be dried, 



