Chemical Science. 169 
to be evaporated by a moderate heat, and the residue digested in 
-alcohol, which will dissolve the acetate as well as ozmazome and 
- some salts. The alcoholic solution evaporated, and the residue dis- 
‘solved in water, will cause the separation of a portion of fatty 
matter. The Jast solution is to be evaporated spontaneously, and 
if it contains acetate of morphia, that substance will crystallize in 
diverging needles of a yellow colour, and known by, 1, their 
‘bitter taste; 2, their decomposition by ammonia; 3, the li- 
beration of acetic acid by strong sulphuric acid; 4, the red 
colour developed by nitric acid. Ifthe salt be in such small 
quantity that the ozmazome prevents its crystallization, nitric acid 
will detect it by the colour produced. 
If it is suspected to exist in a solid mixture or substance, it is 
to be boiled with water for about ten minutes, and then treated as 
above. If the accompanying substances are alkaline, a small 
quantity of acetic acid must be added, to form an acetate with the 
morphia. 
By these methods M. Lassaigne has detected the acetate of 
morphia ; 1, in the substances vomited by animals to which it 
had been given; 2, in the stomach of a cat who died on taking 
five grains of it; 3, in the liquid from the thorax of a dog 
which died ten minutes after the injection of fourteen grains of the 
substance; 4, in the small intestines of a cat which died ten 
hours after the injection of eighteen grains of the substance into 
that canal ; 5, in the duodenum of a dog which died four hours 
and a half after the injection of eighteen grains into that part. 
_ It was found also in the blood from the jugular vein of a horse, 
opposite to that by which thirty grains of the acetate had been in- 
jected ten minutes before ; but five hours after the injection none 
could ke found, indicating that where the animal could support the 
poison it was gradually destroyed or expelled. A grain of the 
‘salt mixed with six ounces and a half of ox blood, was easily 
found again after several hours. 
Lest the orange colour produced by nitric acid should be due 
to the presence of an animal substance, M. Lassaigne endeavoured 
‘to avoid the presence of any such matter, and found the following 
process perfect in this respect. A solution of sub-acetate of lead 
is added to the aqueous solution of the alcoholic extract sus- 
pected to contain acetate of morphia, all the colouring and azoted 
matters are immediately precipitated, and there remains in solu- 
tion only certain salts with the acetate of morphia, and a slight 
excess of acetate of lead, which latter may be decomposed by a 
few bubbles of sulphuretted hydrogen. The solution should then 
be evaporated in vacuo over sulphuric acid, and if it contains 
acetate of morphia, that substance will soon crystallize, its base 
may be separated, and the colour by nitric acid is no longer 
equivocal. 
