Chemistry. lvii 
Four ounces of pounded opium were digested in successive 
quantities of cold water till that liquid amounted to 16 pints. 
This infusion was evaporated on a sand-bath till it was reduced 
to eight ounces. The lime and the sulphuric acid which it con- 
tained in the state of sulphate of lime were then precipitated by 
oxalate of ammonia and muriate of barytes. The infusion was 
now diluted with eight pints of water, and Lge isa by caustic 
ammonia. Upon the precipitate, an ounce of sulphuric ether 
was poured, and the whole was put upon afilter. A deep black 
liquid ran through by degrees, which weighed half an ounce. 
The morphia remaining on the filter was then digested three 
times in caustic ammonia, and as often in alcohol. Both of 
these liquids acquired a dark-brown colour. The morphia thus 
purified was dissolved in 12 ounces of boiling alcohol, and the 
filtered solution was set aside. It deposited transparent crystals 
of pure morphia, weighing 75 gr. 
Morphia thus prepared is white and transparent. It crystal- 
lizes in octahedrons composed of two four-sided pyramids with 
square bases. It dissolves in 82 times its weight of boiling 
water, and the solution crystallizes on cooling. It dissolves in 
36 times its weight of boiling, and in 42 times its weight of cold 
alcohol. It dissolves in eight times its weight of sulphuric ether. 
All these solutions change the infusion cf Brazil-wood to violet, 
and the tincture of rhubarb to brown. They have a bitter and 
peculiar astringent taste, and the alcoholic and ethereal solutions 
when rubbed upon the skin leave a red mark. The equivalent 
number for the weight of this substance, from a mean of Chou- 
lant’s analyses, seems to approach 8°25. 
3. Picrotoxine—This substance was detected by M. Boullay 
some time ago in the cocculus indicus, and I have given an 
account of its properties in the last edition of my System of 
Chemistry, iv. 55. Boullay has since shown that it is capable 
of neutralizing acids; of course it is entitled to be placed among 
the vegetable alkalies. It may be precipitated from the infusion 
of the cocculus indicus by caustic ammonia. If the precipitate 
be washed, and then dissolved in alcohol, it may be obtained by 
spontaneous evaporation in white silky needles —(See Annals of 
Philosophy, xii. 312.) 
_ 4. Vauqueline.—This is a name given by MM. Pelletier and 
Caventon to a new vegetable alkali which they have extracted 
from the nux vomica, and from St. Ignatius’s bean. Its proper- 
ties are said to be as follows: 
It is slightly soluble in water, very soluble in alcohol, gives a 
blue colour to litmus paper reddened by acids, does not redden 
turmeric, combines with acids, and neutralizes them, and forms 
with them crystallizable salts.—(Annals of’ Philosophy, xii. 314.) 
VII. ANALYTICAL IMPROVEMENTS. 
1. Separation of Lime and Magnesia.—Many attempts have 
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