CRYSTALLINE CONSTITUENTS OF OPIUM. 361 
These numbers correspond very closely with the formula C,, H,, NO,,, as is 
obvious from the comparison of the calculated results of that formula given abov e 
That it is actually different from Won Ler’s opiammon, of which the formula is 
C,,H,, NO,,, is very obvious, but it bears a very interesting relation to it. The 
latter substance is derived from two equivalents of opianic acid and one equiva- 
lent of ammonia, by the removal of the elements of four equivalents of water as 
thus represented :-— 


2 eq. opianic acid, =. : : Oils Ose 
1 eq. ammonia, . - EDP eN 
yo Hos N Ogg 
4 eq. water, : : : . thy A 
1 eq. opiammon, 3 . 3 C,) H,, N O,, 
and the new compound is derived in a precisely similar manner from three equi- 
valents of opianic acid :— 

3 eq. opianic acid, . : . Cr else ean 
1 eq. ammonia, : j 3 Eye 
Coo Hy N O55 
4 eq. water, 5 F Ls ditay: Oe, 
leq. teropiammon, . : é (Cf pls Feeds| XO} 
Both these substances may therefore be considered as a sort of nitriles of 
opianic acid, at least they bear to the opianates of ammonia a similar relation to 
that which the nitriles hitherto examined do to the ammonia salts from which 
they are obtained. That this is actually the constitution of teropiammon, is 
proved by the action of potash, which, when boiled with it, produces an abundant 
evolution of ammonia, while the fluid contains an acid, which was found by its 
properties, as well as by an analysis, of which the details will be given under 
another head, to be opianic acid. It is in consideration of this constitution, that 
I give to the substance the name of teropiammon, while I should propose that of 

binopiammon for the substance described by Woutmr, reserving that of opiam- 
mon for the corresponding compound derived from one equivalent of opianic acid 
and ammonia, should that substance be discovered, which is by no means impro- 
bable. The production of teropiammon in a highly acid fluid must be considered 
as an extremely remarkable phenomenon, and one of which, so far as I know, we 
have no similar example. It is obviously the result of a secondary decomposition, 
_ produced by the further action of nitric acid on narcotine, which, as we shall 
immediately see, yields a great variety of curious and complex products; but it 
has appeared to me that the quantity obtained was largest when the action was 
most moderate, at least I have never succeeded in obtaining it more abundantly 
___ by continuing the action for a longer time, but rather the reverse. 
