MORPHINE. 157 
‘ 
close vessels, gives out carbonate of ammonia; and a solid, black, resinous 
kind of matter remains.* : 
The salts of morphine are more soluble than morphine itself. The sulphate 
and acetate are also generally employed in medicine. Magendie says “I 
employed the acetate, the sulphate, and the hydrochlorate of morphine, and 
found that these salts afford all the advantages which we can expect to meet 
in opium, without any of its inconveniences.” The acetate of morphine, 
which has been introduced into the Paris Pharmacopeeia, is prepared as fol- 
lows :—Take four parts of morphine, and of distilled water, eight parts; di- 
lute the morphine in a porcelain vessel, and add acetic acid of the specific 
gravity, 1,075, until turnsol paper is scarcely tinged red; evaporate the solu- 
tion, and continue the evaporation until the salt may be collected, and re- 
duced to powder. Morphine, as well as its acetate, is prescribed in doses of 
from one-eighth of a grain to a grain. In Paris it is usually administered 
in the form of a syrup, composed of the acetate and honey.t Dr. Thompson 
says, “ the combination of Morphia, its acetate, and citrate, may be used in 
the same diseases, and with the same intention, as opium. The result of my 
own experience inclines me to regard the acetate as well adapted for cases 
of phthisis and in inflammatory affection, where it is of importance to obtain 
the sedative effect of the remedy, free from the exciting quality. As the 
cordiate is the natural compound of Morphia in opium, it is likely to prove * 
still more useful.” { * 
* Our readers who may wish for further information on the various methods for ob- 
taining morphine, narcotine, and their combinations, and also their effects on the animal 
economy ; we must refer them to the essay of M. Derosnes, Annales de Chimie, vol. xiv. 
M. Sertuerner, on the same subject, Ann. de Chim. et Phys. vol. v. p. 21; on the action 
of morphia and narcotine, by M. Magendie, Journ. de Physiol. Expér.; a paper on the 
same subject, by M. Orfila, Ann. de Chim. et Phys. vol. v. p. 288; Report of M. Lodi- 
pert, Bulletin de la Société de Phar. vol. i. p. 875 and also to a paper by Dr. Ure in the 
Quarterly Journal of Science, for May, 1830. 
+ Magendie’s Formulaire. t London Disp. 
