CRYSTALLINE CONSTITUENTS OF OPIUM. 213 



Carbon, 

 Hydrogen, 

 Iodine, 

 Oxygen, 



The formula is therefore C 20 H 9 1 



Experiment. 





Calculation. 





37-16 



3748 



^20 



120 



2-96 



2-81 



H D 



9 



39-48 



39-70 



I 



127-1 



20-40 



20-01 



o 8 



64 



100-00 100-00 3201 



Action of Peroxide of Lead and Sulphuric Acid on Opianyl. 



I had fully expected that either opianic or hemipinic acids would have been 

 produced by the action of nitric acid on opianyl ; but having failed to obtain them, 

 I had recourse to peroxide of lead as a convenient oxidizing agent. When opianyl 

 is heated very gently along with that substance and sulphuric acid, an action 

 takes place, carbonic acid is evolved, and an amorphous substance obtained in 

 solution. Deficiency of material, however, prevented the extension of my expe- 

 riments in this direction as far as was desirable ; but having recently contrived a 

 process by means of which opianyl may be obtained with great certainty from 

 narcotine, I hope to return to the subject in a future paper. There can, I think, 

 be no doubt that by the use of an oxidizing agent incapable of producing a sub- 

 stitution product, one or other of these acids must be obtained. 



The preceding experiments having established the identity of meconine with a 

 decomposition product of narcotine, it seemed natural to suppose that the former 

 was not an original constituent of opium, but had been produced \>y the decom- 

 position of the latter, either during the process of inspissation, or in the chemical 

 treatment to which it had been submitted ; and in that case, the mother liquors 

 from which it was extracted ought also to contain cotarnine. As that base is not 

 precipitated by ammonia, the probability was, that if present at all, it must have 

 existed in the fluid along with opianyl, and ought to have been extracted from it 

 by ether, but no satisfactory evidence of its presence could be obtained, the only 

 basic substance contained in the ether, being the small quantity of papaverine 

 which was separated in the manner already described. Nor can this excite sur- 

 prise, for the difficulty there is in making cotarnine crystallize under any circum- 

 stances, and the extent to which its properties are masked by the presence of 

 other substances, are such as almost to preclude the hope of extracting it from 

 the large mass of indeterminate amorphous substances with which it must be 

 mixed. Resinous matters possessed of basic properties, and giving precipitates 

 with bichloride of platinum, and corrosive sublimate, were found along with the- 

 ! i baine, and abound in all parts of the opium mother liquor ; but no special attention 

 was paid to these, very few trials having shown that their purification would have 

 been attended with great difficulties. It is possible that cotarnine may exist in 

 6ome of them. 



