PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM. 
81 
obtained in the form of beautiful crystals, each a rectangular four- 
sided prism. These crystals are perfectly white, slightly transpa- 
rent, entirely devoid of odour; and of an extremely bitter taste. Dr. 
Thomson obtained from good Turkey opium, nearly three times the 
quantity of morphine which the same weight of East India opium 
yielded. Pure morphine is but little soluble, and its narcotic powers 
are best manifested when it is combined with an acid, the salts of 
morphine being much more soluble than morphine itself; as 
already said, it is in combination with an acid that it is found 
in opium. Magendie says, " I employed the acetate, the sul- 
phate, and the hydrochlorate of morphine, and found that these 
salts afford all the advantages which we can expect to meet with in 
opium, without any of its inconveniences." The acetate of morphine 
which has been introduced into the Paris Pharmacopoeia, is pre- 
pared as follows:— Take four parts of morphine, and of distilled 
water, eight parts; dilute the morphine in a porcelain vessel, and 
add acetic acid of the specific gravity 1.075, until turnsol paper is 
scarcely tinged red ; evaporate the solution, and continue the eva- 
poration until the salt may be collected and reduced to powder. 
Morphine, as well as its acetate, is prescribed in doses of from 
one-eighth of a grain to a grain. In Paris it is usually administered 
in the form of a syrup, composed of the acetate and honey. 
Narcotine. The other active ingredient of opium is obtained 
by exhausting the crude opium in two parts of boiling ether, and 
repeating the operation five successive times. The solution obtained 
by this process is then mixed and filtered, and the ether volatilized 
until the whole is reduced to three-fourths. The product consists 
of two distinct parts; of a saline crust, consisting of narcotine united 
with an acid ; and of a brown, bitter, acid liquor, also containing 
narcotine, an acid, and a resin. To obtain the narcotine from this 
liquor, it must be subjected to evaporation, the residuum treated 
with boiling water, and the narcotine precipitated from the filtered 
liquor by ammonia. The narcotine is afterwards to be separated 
from the resin and caoutchouc, by treating the saline crust in which 
it is contained with rectified oil of turpentine, and washing the 
residuuih with cold alcohol. This residuum is then dissolved in hot 
alcohol, and the narcotine precipitated by ammonia. The two 
precipitates are then dissolved in the least possible quantity of 
hydrochloric acid, and again precipitated by ammonia. The nar- 
cotine thus obtained crystallizes in fine needles or rhomboidal 
prisms. It has no action on vegetable colours ; is without smell or 
taste, slightly soluble jn cold alcohol, while boiling alcohol dissolves 
VOL. I. M 
