472 OPIUM MORPHINE 



injected hypodermically, produced fatal tetanus in dogs 

 (Harley). ' 



Narcotine exists in opium in quantities varying from 4 to 6 

 per cent., and is got by treating the insoluble residue left 

 in the preparation of morphine with diluted acetic acid, 

 precipitating the solution with ammonia, and purifying 

 with hot alcohol and animal charcoal. It is a feeble base, 

 and is distinguished from morphine by having no bitter 

 taste, no reaction on vegetable colouring matter, and no 

 effect on ferric chloride. Inappropriately named, it is 

 devoid of narcotism ; is tonic and antiperiodic ; and has 

 been used in India as a substitute for quinine in the treat- 

 ment of malarial fevers. Large doses are convulsant. 



Narceine occurs as a light, colourless, bitter, asbestos-like 

 body, made up of soft, needle-like crystals, soluble in 100 

 parts of boiling water, 400 of cold, and rather more soluble 

 in glycerin and diluted hydrochloric acid. Somewhat 

 contradictory opinions are expressed regarding its actions. 

 In dogs, grs. v., subcutaneously injected, produced calmative 

 and hypnotic effects, similar, it is said, to those induced by a 

 grain of morphine. Poisonous doses arrest respiratory 

 movements, but do not cause convulsions. 



ACTIONS AND USES. Opium has a complex and somewhat 

 variable composition, and its alkaloids have different, and 

 some of them opposite, effects ; hence its actions are liable 

 to variation ; although in the main opium acts in the same 

 manner as morphine, its chief alkaloid. The effects differ 

 in the same individual according to the dose, and in man 

 and the lower animals according to the relative development 

 of the several parts of the central nervous system. In man, 

 the higher brain centres, on which the drug acts primarily 

 and prominently, are paralysed, and the patient is usually 

 calmed, sleeps, and, where large doses are given, becomes 

 comatose. In the lower animals opiates stimulate in 

 addition the reflex centres of the cord, and instead of being 

 quieted and hypnotised, the subject at first is excited, 

 exhibits irregular, involuntary movements, tetanic convul- 

 sions, and, as death approaches, coma, from which, however, 

 it can be readily roused. This action is explained by the 

 fact that the higher (cerebral) controlling centres being 



