106 APPENDIX, 
sulphuric acid, With this aim in view, 50 grams of finely powdered 
opium were: rubbed together with distilled water and the paste 
washed completely into a dialyser consisting of an oval gutta-percha 
ring covered with heavy parchment paper and immersed in a dish 
containing about five litres of distilled water, This was allowed to 
stand covered thus for nearly three months, the water being changed 
about twice a week, Even at the tpiretion of this time, sulphuric 
acid and alkaloids could be detected in the dialysate, and as my time 
exhausting the opium remaining in the dialyser with cold water. This 
last extract was treated separately, although exactly in the same 
way as the greater portion, While this operation was quietly pro- 
gressing, a complete analysis of the ash of opium (the same as was 
used for dialysis) was made in order thus to get a definite idea of 
the mineral constituents of the drug. Accordingly, 20 grams of 
finely powdered opium were carefully and gradually ignited in por- 
tions in a platinum dish, It was found very difficult to completely 
incinerate the drug, so that even after heating the dish toa bright 
red heat the resulting ash was quite dark, in fact nearly black. It 
was found very advantageous at this point to treat the mass with a 
little cold water and evaporate this off on a water-bath, and finally, 
again carefully heat and glow it over afree flame. By meee 
this cperation several times, an ash was obtained, which was Vv 
nearly pure white in colour, When weighed, it yielded 3: 89 
per cent, of the original substance. 
A complete analysis, the details of which it would be useless to 
enumerate here, gave the following results, these being expressed 
in per cent. of the ash weighed :— 
Per cent. 
SiO? ee ~ ove one pies see pve or woo LUSTS 
P205 +e 8-07 
SOs = zn Be ‘ z we 20 oo 
Fe?03 ter - ‘ 198 
CaO ove ; . “ os §=9°04 
MgO . ’ ” ory e we Oak 
20) 
K vig ee soe vee We ae aS 
CO?, HCl and undetermined constituents ... oe ef ees 
