OPIUM 201 



dons in text-books usually apply; (2) Egyptian, in flattened, round- 

 ish cakes; (3) Persian, in cylindrical sticks or cakes of a black color \ 

 (4) Indian, in flat squares, covered with layers of mica, and further 

 protected by a coating of wax or an oiled-paper wrapper; (5) Chinese, 

 in flat, globular cakes; (6) European. 



DESCRIPTION or DRUG. In irregular or subglobular lumps weighing 

 from four ounces to two pounds, enveloped in remnants of poppy 

 leaves and with chaffy fruits of a species of Rumex adhering; when 

 fresh it is plastic, breaking or tearing apart, showing an irregular, 

 chestnut-brown surface, shining when rubbed; odor peculiar, narcotic; 

 taste bitter. When examined with a pocket lens, it is seen to be com- 

 posed of yellowish, agglutinated tears. The value of the gum, how- 

 ever, is determined only by assay. Opium should yield not less than 

 9 per cent.; powdered opium not less than 12, nor more than 12.5 

 per cent., of crystallized morphine when assayed by the official 

 process. 



Granulated opium, or coarsely powdered opium, is an article of 

 commerce, and is especially recommended as a form of the drug best 

 adapted to the preparation of the tinctures. 



Powder. Characteristic elements: See Part iv, Chap. I, B. 



ADULTERATIONS. To increase the weight various articles are used, 

 such as sand, clay, scrapings of poppy capsules, and various muci- 

 laginous, albuminous, and saccharine matters. The writer has taken 

 from the interior of about a two-pound lump of opium over a quarter 

 of a pound of lead bullets. 



A mixture sold for opium was analyzed and found to be mostly 

 aloes which after suitable mixing, had been buried in the ground until 

 the odor of aloes was gone. 



Factitious opium has occasionally been met with, of soft consistence, 

 blackish-brown color, less odorous than the genuine. It is probably 

 an aqueous extract of the poppy plant. 



Alkaloidal assay,- and microscope, easily betray adulteration. 

 CONSTITUENTS. Opium contains a mixture of sixteen or more different 

 alkaloids, with meconic acid, coloring matters, and various inert 

 substances. The principal constituents are the following alkaloids: 

 Morphine, Ci 7 Hi 9 NO 3 + H 2 0; codeine, Ci 8 H 21 NO 3 + H 2 O (both 

 official); narcotine, narceine, paramorphine, papaverine, meconidine, 

 pseudomorphine, codamine, laudanine, and oxynarcotine; these are 

 in combination with meconic and thebolactic acids. Mineral con- 

 stituents average about 6 per cent. 



Preparation of Morphine. To the concentrated infusion of opium add three 

 volumes of a mixture composed of one part of alcohol, two volumes of ether, and 

 one- third volume of ammonia; shake, and set aside for crystals to form. 



Preparation of Codeine. The mother liquor, from which morphine has sepa- 



