PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 87 
In addition to the preparation of Turkey opium, we have also 
had the opportunity of experimenting on small quantities of the 
Patna, Malwa, and Persian varieties, and all of them present pe- 
culiarities of interest. An aqueous extract and a tincture have 
been made from each, and from the Patna sort sufficient has re- 
remained to make a specimen of liquor. 
The most striking fact in connection with the whole of them is 
the existence of large quantities of codeine. In the extract of 
Patna opium it is the chief crystalline constituent, and though 
the liquor shows abundance of the other opium principles, it 
evidently owes its narcotic effect much more to codeine than 
Turkey opium does. We have the experience of an opium eater 
on this point; he states that the quantity required to produce 
the effect is larger, but there is less discomfort in the after effects 
than with other sorts. Malwa opium shows more narcine and 
nareotine; but in the tincture we have, in addition to a mass of 
minute crystals, certain larger prisms, which are probably codeine. 
Persian opium also evidently ccntains a large proportion of narco- 
tine and codeine. 
We stated at the commencement that this must be looked upon 
only as a preliminary research, there remaining many points on 
which our information is far from complete. In continuing the 
inquiry we intend to devote ourselves chiefly to the elucidation of 
certain particulars. Firstly, the condition or form of combination 
in which morphine exists in crude opium; secondly, the relation 
“of extract of poppy to opium in respect to crystalline principles ; 
and thirdly, the influence which the extractive matters may have 
in alterimg the crystals obtained in opium solutions, and the 
variations of the normal furms induced by this cause. 
The general conclusions we have arrived at in addition to a 
knowledge of the appearances presented by typical and special 
preparations of Turkey, Patna, Malwa, and Persian opiums, are 
mainly these :— 
That tincture, most nearly of any of the preparations, 
represents the properties, good and bad, of the erude drug. 
That when crude opium is taken up with proof spirit as in 
tincture, the resin separates on evaporation. 
That the preparations which have held their ground with 
the public and the medical profession, in spite of price, differ 
from the tincture in comparative freedom from resin and 
nareotine, and in containing only a diminished quantity of 
meconic¢ acid. 
That in the preparation of extract of opium it is important 
to use a large quantity of distilled water to ensure the sepa- 
ration of narcotine and resin. 
That when extract of opium is dissolved in water, filtered 
and evaporated again to an extract a second or third time, the 
crystals frequently differ considerably from those seen in the 
normal or first-formed extract. 
