104 APPENDIX. 



as Dieterich has conclusively sliewn, and as I only shook for about 

 half an hoixr steadily, with continued shaking at intervals of ten 

 minutes for two hours more, it is very probable that all of the mor- 

 phine did not separate out. The high figures obtained by Squibb's 

 method are undoubtedly to be explained by the impurity of the 

 resulting products, which fact could readUy be detected by the 

 naked eye, as they were invariably very dark-coloured. Despite all 

 the washing that they were subjected to, they never once were even 

 approximately near being colourless, and besides invariably dissolved 

 in lime water only in part and gave as a result a very dark -coloured 

 solution. It was found that continued washing would not remove 

 the impurities, for long before the crystals and filter paper shewed 

 any signs of becoming decolourized, the wash water ran through 

 absolutely pure and colourless. In both cases the morjihine obtained 

 by the U. S. P. method dissolved completely in lime water and gave 

 a pure, limpid, clear solution, while that obtained by Fliickiger's 

 method, although it gave a colourless solution in lime water, yet left 

 a small residue amounting to several milligrams and consisting of 

 narcotine, as did the residue obtained in Squibb's method. This 

 would indicate that in the presence of alcohol and water, the ether 

 does not completely dissolve all of the narcotine. 



Morphine Picrate. 

 Inasmuch as this salt of morphine had not yet been described, 

 and the similar salt of strychnine is practically insoluble in water, 

 and hence enable us to determine the alkaloid as strychnine picrate, 

 it was made by treating a solution of morphine hydrochlorate with 

 a slight excess of picric acid, in the hope that it, too, might prove 

 to be insoluble, and thus facilitate some vvh at the method of deter- 

 mining morphine. Recrystallized from alcohol it crystallizes in 

 groups of fine yellow needles arranged most peculiarly in the shape 

 of warts, which grow one along-side cf the other, and hang from the 

 surface of the liquid looking much like plaits of hair. The salt 

 melts, or, better, decomposes, without detonation at 157° C. It 

 differs^ from the corresponding salt of strychnine, however, in not 

 being insoluble in either water or alcohol, as determinations of its 

 solubility gave the following results : 



r 



^ In distilled water at 13° C- 15 "09 75 grams of a saturated solution 

 yielded 0-031 grams of morphine picrate (dried »t 100°) which 

 gives a solubility of 1 part in 500 parts of water. 



