OPIUM. 57 



Indian opium yields from 60 to 68 per cent, of matter soluble in cold 

 water.' 



The peculiar constituents of opium are of basic, acid, or neutral 

 nature. Some of these substances were observed in opium as early as 

 the 17th and 18th century, and designated Magistermni Opii. Bucholz 

 in 1802 vainly endeavoured to obtain a salt from the extract by 

 crystallization. In 1803, however, Charles Derosne, an apothecary of 

 Paris, in diluting a syrupy aqueous extract of opium, observed crystals 

 of the substance now called Narcotine, which he prepared pure. He 

 believed that the same body was obtained by precipitating the mother 

 liquor with an alkali, but what he so got was morphine. It is needless 

 to pursue the further researches of Derosne. Ingenious as they were, 

 it was reserved for Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertiirner, apothecary 

 of Eimbeck in Hanover {not. 1783, oh. 1841) to discover their true 

 interpretation. 



Sertiirner had been engaged since 1805 with the chemical investi- 

 gation of opium, and in 1816 he summarized his results in the state- 

 ment that he had enriched science (we now ti-anslate his own words') 

 — " not only with the knowledge of a remarkable new vegetable acid 

 [Mekonsdure (meconic acid) which he had made known as O/yiunisdure 

 in 1806], but also with the discovery of a new alkaline salifiable base, 

 Morphiwni, one of the most remarkable substances, and apparently 

 related to ammonia." Sertiirner in fact distinctly recognised the basic 

 nature and the organic constitution of morphium (now called Morphine, 

 Morphia, or Morphinurii), and prepared a number of its crystalline 

 salts. He likewise demonstrated the poisonous nature of these sub- 

 stances by experiments on himself and others. Lastly, he pointed out, 

 though very incorrectly, the difierence between morphine and the so- 

 called Opium-salt (Narcotine) of Derosne. It is possible that this 

 latter chemist may have had morphine in his hands at the same time 

 as Sertiirner, or even earlier. This honour is also due to Sdguin, 

 whose paper " Sur VOpium," read at the Institute, December 24, 1804, 

 was, strange to say, not published till 1814.' To Sertiirner, however, 

 undoubtedly belongs the merit of first making known the existence of 

 organic alkalis in the vegetable kingdom,^ — a series of bodies practically 

 interminable. As to opium, it still remains after nearly seventy yeai-s 

 a nidus of new substances. 



Solutions of morphine in acids or in alkalis rotate the plane of 

 polarization to the left. 



The morphine in opium is combined with meconic acid, and is 

 therefore easily soluble in water.* The Xarcotine is present in the 

 free state, and can be extracted by chloroform, boiling alcohol, benzol, 

 ether, or volatile oils,^ but not by water. It dissolves in 3 parts of 

 chloroform, in 20 of boiling alcohol, in 21 of benzol, in 40 of boiling 

 ether. Its alkaline properties are very weak, and it does not affect 



^ Calculated from official statements given alcaline de la morphine, et avoir ainsi ouvert 



by Eatwell in the paper quoted at p. 50. une voie qui produit de grandes decouvertes 



2 Gilbert's AnTialen der Physik, Iv. (1817) medicales." 



57. * There are exceptional cases in which it 



*Annale» de CMrme, xcii (1814) 225. is asserted that water does not take up the 



* The Institut de France on the 27th whole amount of morphine. 



June, 1831, awarded to Sertiirner a prize of «In large crystals by means of oil of 



2000 francs — ' ' pour avoir reconnu la nature turpentine. 



