MOBPHIN-LIKE SUBSTANCES. 241 



the tests obtained by the experts were duplicated with putrefactive 

 products. Many skillful chemists have carried companion portions 

 of decomposed tissue, one portion with, and the other without mor- 

 phin, through the process of extraction recommended by Dragendorff, 

 and have obtained satisfactory results, finding that the proper residue 

 responds to the color test in the one instance and fails to do so in 

 the other. Tissues have been thus tested in apparently every stage 

 of putrefaction, and the results have been satisfactory and confirma- 

 tory of the methods generally employed. There is one point, how- 

 ever, which has been constantly overlooked. The putrefaction to 

 which the tissues in these experiments are subjected has been aero- 

 bic, while that occurring in the dead body is anaerobic ; consequently, 

 the putrefactive products are not the same in the two cases. In all 

 experimental studies of the value of the tests for morphin in decom- 

 posing tissue, putrefaction must be allowed to proceed in the absence 

 of oxygen. There is a second point, probably of equal importance, 

 and this concerns the kind of tissue employed. The upper portion 

 of the small intestines (and the adjacent tissue after death) has a 

 bacterial flora peculiar to itself. These tissues are the ones quite 

 universally examined in medico-legal cases, and consist of the small 

 intestine itself, the stomach, the liver, the pancreas, the spleen, and, 

 in some instances, the kidneys. Of course, the bacteria present in 

 the small intestine during life may after death extend into the ab- 

 dominal and thoracic viscera. 



Vaughan allowed finely-chopped ox-liver to ferment for thirty 

 days under anaerobic conditions and then divided the decomposed 

 mass into three portions, which were marked A, B and C. To B, 130 

 mg. of morphin sulphate was added, and to C the same amount of 

 morphin together with 0.5 gram each of indol, skatol and phenol; 

 no addition was made to A. These portions were carried simulta- 

 neously through the manipulations recommended by Dragendorflf. 

 To the residues obtained from the amylic alcohol extract of alkaline 

 solutions, in which the chemist expects to find morphin, all the 

 known color tests for morphin were applied and all the residues re- 

 sponded to these tests in the same manner. In all, nitric acid gave 

 a lemon-brown color ; sulphuric acid showed no change ; sulphuric 

 with nitric acid gave a lemon-yellow, slowly changing to a pink ; 

 ferric chlorid gave a dirty green ; iodic acid was promptly reduced ; 

 Frohde's reagent gave a blue color without any violet ; and sulphuric 

 acid and cane sugar produced a brownish-red color, changiiig to a 

 wine-red. These investigations show that the color tests for mor- 

 phin, employed by toxicologists in following the scheme of Dragen- 

 dorfi^, are wholly untrustworthy. The substances in these extracts 

 which vitiate the tests for morphin probably consist of indol and its 

 derivatives. Germs which produce indol and kindred substances 

 are native and constant representatives of the bacterial flora of the 

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