132 
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh, [jan. 30, 
Laurent * belongs the honour of having given the formula 
(using the modern notation), the accuracy of which 
formula has been confirmed by subsequent analyses, particularly by 
those of Matthiessen and Wright. f Nothing was ever observed to 
suggest that the formula is a multiple of these members until 
Wright, after an elaborate investigation of the derivatives of morphine 
and codeine, came to the conclusion that the true formula must be 
at least double the empirical, and that we ought therefore to write 
Cg^HggNgOg. The reasons which led Dr Wright to that conclusion 
are, briefly stated, as follows : — 
It was found that when morphine is heated with hydrochloric 
acid in a sealed tube,J there is produced, besides apomorphine, a 
mixture of amorphous bases. This mixture, when fractionated, 
appears by analysis to contain a base “ E ” (C34H3gCl2N204) homo- 
logous with chlorocodide, and also a base ‘‘P” (C34H3gClN20g). 
Now it is evident that if it were clearly established that the latter 
base contains only 1 atom of Cl to the 34 of C, and if at the same time 
it were proved that no polymerisation had taken place in its forma- 
tion, the formula of morphine must be C34H3gN20g, and not 
C4^H4gN03. Similarly, chlorocodide is apparently preceded in its 
formation by a base homologous with base “ P f and as chlorocodide 
yields codeine by the simple action of water, it is manifest that no 
polymerisation has taken place. The formula of codeine must 
therefore be C3gH42N20g ; and as codeine is simply the methyl ether 
of morphine, it follows that morphine must be ^ 34 ^ 38 ^ 2 ^ 6 * 
other argument for the higher formula is deduced from a study of 
the acetyl derivatives of morphine. In the course of an extended 
investigation of these bodies, § Wright obtained what he describes 
as monoacetylmorphine [C34H3^(C2H30)N20g], If we were certain 
that a derivative of that composition had been formed, and that its 
formation was unaccompanied by polymerisation, the proof for the 
higher formula would be complete. 
In preparing certain of the morphine derivatives for the purposes 
of pharmacological investigation, we have obtained results which 
lead us to a different conclusion regarding the formula from that 
Am. Ch. Phy., Ixii. 96. t Proc, Roy, Soc.^ xvii. 455. 
+ Proc. Roy. Soc., xvii, 460; xviii, 83. 
§ Jour, Chem, Soc,, [2] xii, 1031. 
