154 NARCOTINE. 
table colours, is without smell or taste, slightly soluble in cold alcohol, while 
boiling alcohol dissolves one twenty-fourth of its weight. Hot ether dissolves 
it freely, und suffers it to crystallize on cooling. According to M. Magendie 
a single grain of pure Narcotine, dissolved in oil, and given to a dog, pro- 
duced a state of stupor, but very different from sleep, and death generally 
in twenty-four hours. Narcotine, combined with acetic acid, he found to 
occasion quite a different effect, twenty-four grains having been given to an 
animal without its perishing. While under its influence, he says, they are 
agitated by convulsions, similar to those produced by an over-dose of cam- 
phor: the same signs of fright, the same incapability of going forward, the 
foaming at the mouth, and convulsion of the jaws. The most interesting, 
and indeed, the most important experiment related by Magendie, was the 
action of the combined substances, morphine and Narcotine, on a dog. He 
dissolved a grain of each in acetic acid, and introduced the mixture into the 
pleura of the animal, which soon fell asleep; but he says avery remarkable 
struggle appeared to go on for an hour between the strangulating effects of 
the Narcotine, and the anodyne effects of the morphine; at last the animal 
slept, probably under the influence of the morphine. He adds, “ may it not 
be inferred from this experiment, which [ have often repeated in various 
ways, and with analogous results, that the variable effects of opium are to 
be attributed to their containing these so opposite principles?” From these 
experiments of Magendie, M. Robiquet was tempted to prepare an extract 
of opium which should be entirely devoid of Narcotine. For this purpose, 
he macerates bruised opium in cold water, filtrates and evaporates to the con- 
sistence of a thick syrup, which he digests in rectified ether, and after fre- 
quent shakings, decants the solution; the ether is then separated by distil- 
lation. This operation is repeated as long as any crystals of Narcotine ap- 
pear as the residue of the distillation. When the crystals can no longer be 
discovered, he evaporates the solution to a pilular consistence, which he con- 
siders as entirely devoid of Narcotine. ! 
M. Magendie, in recommending this new preparation of opium to the at- 
tention of physicians, says, “I have tried the extract, thus prepared, on ani- 
mals ; its action appears to be decidedly narcotic, and entirely like that of 
morphine, only weaker.” Mr. Haden, the able translator of Magendie’s 
work on these new preparations, very properly observes, that “ the freedom 
from Narcotine, which characterizes the extractum opii, (which is aqueous) 
