Observations and Experiments on Opium. 25 



effects of opium in its natural state. The Persians and others 

 who make use of opium to excess, frequently swallow 

 draughts of vinegar immediately after the opium. Dr. Crump 

 observes, that when a patient finds himself in a distressed 

 situation, he has recourse to a piece of opium as big as his 

 thumb, and immediately after, drinks a glass of vinegar ; this 

 throws him into a fit of laughter and every extravagance of 

 mirth, and frequently terminates in death. 



To make the denarcotized extract, it has been recommen- 

 ded by M. Robiquet to make a watery infusion of the opium 

 and to evaporate the aqueous solution to the consistence of 

 thin honey ; which is to be digested in aether instead of using 

 the powdered or shaved opium, (as described in the above 

 and in Dr. Hare's formula given in the preceding number of 

 this journal.) I consider this a worse than useless expendi- 

 ture, for the aether will act fully as well, if not more readily, 

 upon opium in powder, than upon an extract containing water, 

 and it is generally admitted, at least by the best authorities, 

 Coxe, Thomson, and Paris, that the narcotic powers of opium 

 are impaired by boiling in water, under exposure to air. 

 H§nce it is that the officinal preparation, opium purificatum, 

 which formerly was highly recommended, is found to be no 

 better than crude opium, perhaps even less active, from which 

 circumstance it has become almost obsolete, and is rarely to 

 be found in our shops. Under this article, Dr. Coxe in his 

 American Dispensatory very justly observes, that in conse- 

 quence of the changes which opium undergoes, by solution 

 and subsequent evaporation (alluding to the opium purifica- 

 tum,) well selected species of crude opium are to be prefer- 

 red to this preparation. I cannot see the object or any ad- 

 vantages to result from making a watery extract, as the opi- 

 um deprived of narcotine will be quite as subject to the ac- 

 tion of proof spirits or any other menstrua with its fceculen- 

 cies, as the crude opium. We do not make a watery extract 

 of opium in the preparation of laudanum, and it would be 

 quite as necessary in this as in the former case. Besides, 

 water is not the most eligible menstruum for the solution of 

 the active matter of opium. Morphia is sparingly soluble in 

 water and the meconiate nearly the same ; we therefore ob- 

 tain but a portion of the sedative principle, as a part of the 

 morphia will remain with the fceculencies undissolved, a less 

 active preparation will therefore be made, but with more 

 labor and expense than by submitting at once the crude opium 



Vol. XIII.— No. 1. 4 



