228 Scientific Notices — Chemistry. [Sept. 



The experiments must be pursued in the four classes of verte- 

 brated animals. 



The prize is a gold medal of the value of 3000 francs, to be 

 decreed in the public sitting on the first Monday in June, 1825. 



The memoirs must be sent to the Secretary of the Institute 

 before the 1st of January in that year. — (Annales de Chimie.) 



Article XV. 

 SCIENTIFIC NOTICES. 



Chemistry. 



1. On the Means of detecting the Presence of Acetate of Morphia, 

 in Animals poisoned by that Substance. By M. Lassaigne. 



The process adopted by M. Lassaigne is as follows : — The 

 contents of the stomach, or the fluid ejected from it, were fil- 

 tered, the fluid carefully evaporated, aud treated with boiling 

 aicohol of the specific gravity of *837, which separated the ani- 

 mal substances. The alcoholic solution was evaporated to the 

 consistence of an extract, and treated with distilled water, to 

 separate the fatty matter ; the solution was then filtered, and 

 deposited, by a gentle evaporation, prismatic crystals at the 

 bottom of the capsule, which possessed the following properties. 



They had a bitter taste, and were precipitated in white flakes 

 from their solution in water by ammonia ; treated with concen- 

 trated sulphuric acid in a small glass tube closed at one end, 

 they exhaled a decided odour of acetic acid : they immediately 

 give a yellow solution with nitric acid, which, with an increased 

 quantity of acid, deepened to orange, and afterwards exhibited 

 a fine reddish-yellow, blood colour. 



These characters belong to the acetate of morphia, and amply 

 attest the presence of that substance. To free the alcoholic 

 extract from colouring matter, M. Lassaigne poured acetate of 

 lead into its solution in water (as practised by Pelletier in his 

 experiments on strychnia), which threw down the colouring 

 matters, and left the morphia and the excess of precipitant in 

 the supernatant liquid, which was easily cleared of the latter by 

 a few bubbles of sulphuretted hydrogen gas. The solution was 

 then evaporated in vacuo over a surface of sulphuric acid, and 

 the fixed alkaline substances were thus obtained free from 

 colour derived from any foreign matter. The action of nitric 

 acid then readily demonstrated by its orange-red colour the pre- 

 sence of the acetate of morphia. 



On examining the stomach, intestines, heart, and blood of a 

 cat poisoned by 12 grains of the acetate, the morphia was only 

 detected in the stomach. The thoracic cavity of a dog which 



