612 CONSIDERATION OF CARBON COMPOUNDS. 



then reddish-yellow, intense scarlet, and, finally, violet-red color. 

 (Plate VI., 8.) The yellow or orange-red solution exhibits, by re- 

 flected light, a greenish fluorescence. 



2. Veratrine, when heated with concentrated hydrochloric acid, 

 dissolves with a blood-red color. 



3. Bromine water colors veratrine violet. 



4. Veratrine forms with nitric acid a yellow solution. 



The isoquinoline group of alkaloids. 



Opium is the concrete, milky exudation obtained, in the Orient, 

 by incising the unripe capsules of papaver somniferum, poppy. 

 Chemically, opium is a mixture of a large number of substances, 

 containing besides glucose, fat, gum, albumin, wax, volatile and 

 coloring matter, meconic acid, etc., not less than sixteen or eighteen 

 different alkaloids, many of which are, however, present in minute 

 quantities. 



Ordinary opium should contain not less than 9 per cent., and when 

 dried at 85 C. (185 F.) not less than 12 per cent, nor more than 

 12.5 per cent, of morphine, to be the official article. Dried and pow- 

 dered opium, after having been exhausted with purified petroleum 

 benzene (which dissolves chiefly the narcotine, but not the morphine 

 salts), is the deodorized opium of the U. S. P. 



Morphine, Morphina, C 17 H 19 NO 3 .H 2 O = 303 (Morphia). A 

 white crystalline powder, or colorless, shining, prismatic crystals, 

 odorless, of a bitter taste, and an alkaline reaction to litmus ; almost 

 insoluble in ether and chloroform, very slightly soluble in cold 

 water, soluble in 300 parts of cold, and 36 parts of boiling, alcohol ; 

 heated for some time at 100 C. (212 F.) it becomes anhydrous ; at 

 254 C. (489 F.) it melts, forming a black liquid. 



The following salts are official : 



Morphine acetate, Morphines acetas, C 17 H 19 NO 3 .C,H 4 O 2 .3H 2 O. 



Morphine hydrochloride, Morphinse hydrochloridum, C 17 H 19 NO 3 .HC1.3H 2 O. 

 Morphine sulphate, Morphinae sulphas, (C n H 19 NO 3 ) 2 H 2 SO 4 .5H 2 O. 



The above three salts are white, and soluble in water. 



Analytical reactions : 



1. Morphine or a morphine salt sprinkled upon nitric acid assumes 

 an orange-red color, and then produces a reddish solution, gradually 

 changing to yellow. (Plate VI., 1.) 



^,2. Neutral solution of ferric chloride causes a blue color with 

 morphine or with neutral solutions of morphine salts ; the color is 



