470 MORPHINE SALTS 



in common use, and is prepared by diffusing morphine in 

 hot distilled water, gradually adding hydrochloric acid, and 

 setting aside the solution to crystallise. It is a snow-white 

 powder, consisting of broken-down crystals, which, when 

 entire, are needle-like prisms clustering in radiated groups. 

 It is without odour, but has the intensely bitter taste of 

 morphine. It is soluble in twenty-four parts of cold water, 

 one part of boiling water, eight parts of glycerin, and in 

 fifty parts of rectified spirit. 



Morphine acetate and tartrate are sometimes used, and 

 are prepared in a similar manner to the hydrochloride. The 

 acetate is a white powder, almost entirely soluble in two and 

 a half parts of water, in five of glycerin, and in one hundred 

 of rectified spirit. The tartrate is soluble in eleven parts of 

 cold water, but not in alcohol. 



Codeine is methyl-morphine. Morphine = C 17 H 18 N0 2 

 (OH); codeine = (C 17 H 18 (CH 3 )N0 3 H 2 0). It is present in 

 opium in the proportion of J to 1 per cent. It is a colour- 

 less, bitter alkaloid, crystallising in trimetric crystals, 

 soluble in eighty parts cold water, in less than two parts 

 of alcohol and chloroform, in ammonia and dilute acids. 

 Unlike morphine, it is insoluble in cold, weak, caustic 

 potash, and is unaffected by ferric chloride. Like the 

 other opium alkaloids, it exhibits the twofold stimulant and 

 hypnotic action, but its hypnotic power is slight, and, 

 like methyl compounds of the alkaloids, it notably stimu- 

 lates the motor centres, and full doses cause tetanic con- 

 vulsions similar to those produced by strychnine or picro- 

 toxin. Codeine depresses sympathetic nerve cells more 

 effectively than morphine, and so prevents inhibition of 

 the intestinal movements. Thus it often causes vomiting 

 and purgation when given to dogs and cats, although its 

 continued use lessens irritability of the digestive tract. 

 When given for several days to dogs, cats, or rabbits, 

 arsenic or other irritants administered cause neither vomit- 

 ing nor purging. It also diminishes the production of 

 hepatic sugar, and is hence prescribed in canine diabetes 

 mellitus. The dose for the dog is gr. T T ^ to gr. \. 



Apomorphine hydrochloride, C 17 H 17 N0 23 HC1, is the hydro- 

 chloride of an alkaloid obtained by heating morphine hydro- 



