978 VEGETO- ALKALIES. 



rulent mass, but when crystallized from alcohol it assumes the 

 form of small colourless brilliant prisms. It requires 1000 times 

 its weight of water to dissolve it, but tastes sensibly bitter, 

 and has an alkaline action. Morphine is scarcely soluble in 

 ether, but dissolves in 40 times its weight of cold and in 

 30 times its weight of boiling alcohol ; it is very soluble in 

 caustic alkali. It is fusible by heat, with the loss of water of 

 crystallization, and on solidifying again forms a crystalline mas. 

 Morphine and its salts strike a deep blue colour with the solu- 

 tion of a persalt of iron made as nearly neutral as possible; 

 they likewise decompose iodic acid and liberate iodine, which 

 may then be detected by solution of starch. 



Hydrochlorate of morphine crystallizes in needles or feathery 

 crystals, which require from 15 to 20 times their weight of cold 

 water to dissolve them,, but dissolve in less than their own 

 weight of boiling water. This, which is perhaps the most 

 valuable of the salts of morphine for medical use, is prepared 

 directly from opium.* Sulphate of morphine is highly soluble, 

 and crystallizes like the hydrochlorate. Bisulphate of morphine 

 has been formed. Acetate of morphine crystallizes with difficulty 

 and is apt to lose a portion of its acid even when kept in 

 crystals ; it is much employed in medicine. Bimeconate of 

 morphine is a crystallizable salt, in which one of the three atoms 

 of water of meconic acid, is replaced by morphine ; this salt also 

 is prepared for medical use ; morphine is supposed to exist in 

 opium in combination with meconic acid. The latter acid can 

 easily be detected by re-agents (page 937) 5 an d being found 

 in no other vegetable matter but opium, meconic acid is the 

 substance looked for in testing for opium, of which it is an 

 infallible index. 



2. Narcotine, C 48 H 24 NO 15 , the first crystalline substance derived 

 from opium, is remarkable for its solubility in ether, by means 

 of which it may be dissolved out of opium. It forms colour- 

 less brilliant prisms, is tasteless, insoluble in water and caustic 

 alkali, soluble in alcohol. Its solution has no alkaline reaction, 

 but narcotine dissolves in acids ; its salts do not crystallize. 



3. Codeine, C 35 H 20 NO 5 , is remarkable for its solubility in 

 water, being soluble in about 2 parts of boiling water, also in 



* By the process invented by Dr. Robertson and improved by Dr. W. Gre- 

 gory; Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, Nos. 107 and 111, also Jour, de 

 Phar., xix. 156, 



