CRYSTALLINE CONSTITUENTS OF OPIUM. 213 
Experiment. Calculation. 
—?e Oe O0@>?>=[T—x——a= 
Carbon, . 5 Z . 37:16 87:48 Cy 120 
Hydrogen, 5 S . 2°96 2°81], H, 9 
Iodine, . : . . 39-48 39°70 I 127-1 
Oxygen, . : 5 - 20-40 20°01 0, 64 
100-00 100-00 320°1 
The formula is therefore C,, H, 10,. 
Action of Perowide of Lead and Sulphuric Acid on Opianyl. 
T had fully expected that either opianic or hemipinic acids would have been 
produced by the action of nitric acid on opianyl; but having failed to obtain them, 
I had recourse to peroxide of lead as a convenient oxidizing agent. When opianyl 
is heated very gently along with that substance and sulphuric acid, an action 
takes place, carbonic acid is evolved, and an amorphous substance obtained in 
solution. Deficiency of material, however, prevented the extension of my expe- 
riments in this direction as far as was desirable; but having recently contrived a 
process by means of which opianyl may be obtained with great certainty from 
narcotine, I hope to return to the subject ina future paper. There can, I think, 
be no doubt that by the use of an oxidizing agent incapable of producing a sub- 
stitution product, one or other of these acids must be obtained. 
The preceding experiments having established the identity of meconine with a 
decomposition product of narcotine, it seemed natural to suppose that the former 
was not an original constituent of opium, but had been produced by the decom- 
position of the latter, either during the process of inspissation, or in the chemical 
treatment to which it had been submitted; and in that case, the mother liquors 
from which it was extracted ought also to contain cotarnine. As that base is not 
precipitated by ammonia, the probability was, that if present at all, it must have 
existed in the fluid along with opianyl, and ought to have been extracted from it 
_ by ether, but no satisfactory evidence of its presence could be obtained, the only 
basic substance contained in the ether, being the small quantity of papaverine 
which was separated in the manner already described. Nor can this excite sur- 
prise, for the difficulty there is in making cotarnine crystallize under any circum- 
stances, and the extent to which its properties are masked by the presence of 
other substances, are such as almost to preclude the hope of extracting it from 
the large mass of indeterminate amorphous substances with which it must be 
mixed. Resinous matters possessed of basic properties, and giving precipitates 
with bichloride of platinum, and corrosive sublimate, were found along with the- 
baine, and abound in all parts of the opium mother liquor; but no special attention 
was paid to these, very few trials having shown that their purification would have 
been attended with great difficulties. It is possible that cotarnine may exist in 
some of them. 
