CRYSTALLINE CONSTITUENTS OF OPIUM. 205 
' After standing for 24 hours, the ether, which had acquired a brown colour, was 
drawn off with a syphon and a new supply added ; and this process was repeated 
as long as it continued to extract any considerable quantity. The ether was 
then distilled off in the water-bath, and left behind a dark amber-coloured or 
brown syrupy fluid. The first extracts remained thick and syrupy, even after 24 
or 48 hours; but those obtained after the agitation with ether had been several 
times repeated, occasionally, though not always, became filled with crystals on 
standing. On the addition of water, a quantity of a thick resinoid substance, not 
unlike turpentine, separated and remained for some time in a semifiuid form at 
the bottom of the fluid. When hydrochloric acid was dropped into it, part of the 
resinoid matter dissolved, and the rest solidified into a dark-gray crystalline powder, 
which was separated by filtration. The hydrochloric solution gave with alkalies a 
dirty gray precipitate which soon became resinous on standing, with bichloride 
of platinum a yellow, and with corrosive sublimate a dirty white precipitate. It 
contained therefore an alkaloid, which was thrown down by ammonia, and purified 
by solution in alcohol, in which it was highly soluble, and by boiling with animal 
charcoal. It was deposited on cooling in irregular needles, which nearly filled 
the fluid, and was shown to be papaverine, by its giving a blue colour with concen- 
trated sulphuric acid and orange crystals of nitrate of nitropapaverine with nitric 
acid.* The granular precipitate was impure meconine. It was purified by solu- 
tion in boiling water, which left a small quantity of an indifferent resin, and the 
fluid on cooling deposited an abundance of needle-shaped crystals, still retaining 
a yellowish shade of colour, which was easily removed by animal charcoal. 
Composition of Meconine. 
Meconine has been already analysed by its discoverer Covurrse, and by 
Reenavut. The earlier analyses of the former} of which the details are not given 
in the original memoir, led to the formula C,, H, O,; but as these are admitted to 
have been erroneous, it is unnecessary to refer to them further. The results con- 
tained in his second memoir,{ and those of RecNav.t,§ are collected in the fol- 
lowing table, in which all are recalculated according to the atomic weight of car- 
bon now in use. 
* Although the salts of papaverine are highly ecrystallizable and sparingly soluble, the presence 
of resinous impurities in the opium fluid has a remarkable tendency to prevent their separating in the 
erystalline form; and we sce that in this instance a certain quantity of the base had even resisted pre- 
cipitation by ammonia. It is probably the same peculiarity which prevents its appearing as an im- 
purity in the hydrochlorate of morphia, prepared by the process of Rozrrtson and Gregory. The 
hydrochlorate of papaverine is less soluble than the hydrochlorate of morphia, and @ priori we should 
expect it to be the first substance to deposit from the concentrated fluid, yet the commercial hydro- 
chlorate of morphia does not contain a trace of it, the whole being retained in the mother liquor. 
+ Annales de Chimic et de Physique, 2d Series, vol. 1., p. 347. 
t Ibid., vol. lix., p. 140. 
§ Ibid., vol. lviii., p. 157. 
