CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF NARCOTINE. 
669 
the amount of meconin simultaneously produced; the products of its decomposition 
could not be isolated. 
Narcotine boiled per ascensum with water for fourteen hours did not perceptibly alter 
in bulk or appearance ; the aqueous liquor on concentration deposited crystals of meconin, 
recognized by their physical characters. 
This splitting up of narcotine under the influence of heated water may explain the 
occurrence of meconin in opium and opium-residues, as probably the small amount of 
meconin always found is simply due to the partial decomposition of the narcotine 
during the processes of extraction of morphia. 
As narcotine is considerably more soluble in alcohol than in water, it was thought 
that the decomposition in sealed tubes with the former reagent might take place more 
readily than with the latter ; in two comparative experiments, however, the reaction was 
found to occur more readily with water than with weak alcohol. 
The addition of a small amount of caustic potash to the water used in the sealed-tube 
experiments did not appreciably modify the result, saving that rather more methyl- 
amine was produced. 
Boiling with dilute potash even for twenty hours was not found to produce any me- 
conin (or opianic acid) ; the potash liquor, however, was found to have dissolved a con- 
siderable quantity of unaltered narcotine ; under ordinary circumstances narcotine is 
almost absolutely insoluble in potash solution. 
2. Action of Heat . — As formerly observed, when narcotine is heated to temperatures 
short of 180°, no action is perceptible beyond a slight yellowish coloration; at about 
210° it swells up, emitting a fragrant odour and combustible gases, and leaving a pasty 
carbonaceous mass. 
A portion of narcotine was cautiously heated to 205°-208°, and the heat withdrawn 
when the decomposition was just commencing; on extracting the mass with hot water, 
a liquor was obtained from which meconin crystallized out on cooling, identified by 
its peculiar physical characteristics ; the other products of decomposition could not be 
isolated. 
3. Action of Ferric Chloride . — When hydrochlorate of narcotine is heated with 
a moderately concentrated solution of ferric chloride, the latter is reduced and a 
considerable quantitity of opianic acid formed : to convert the whole of the narcotine 
employed, several days’ successive ebullition is necessary, the opianic acid obtained being 
thus approximately equal to the theoretical amount ; thus in two experiments the opi- 
anic acid obtained (partly by crystallization, partly by extraction with ether) amounted 
to 48 and 47 per cent, of the narcotine employed, the theoretical yield being 50-8 per 
cent. 
This acid possessed all the properties of opianic acid. After purification by successive 
recrystallizations, it gave the following numbers on analysis : — 
I. 0-4410 grm., dried at 100°, gave 0-9170 carbonic acid and 0-1860 grm. water. 
II. 0-3750 grm. gave 0-7890 carbonic acid and 0-1590 water. 
mdccclxix 4 u 
