110 
ON THE SUBLIMATION OF THE ALKALOIDS. 
A few bright crystalline bundles spring from some of the globules. 
Here and there bright stars. In dry spot, the globules retain their 
shape, but their tint varies, some having a golden hue, some being 
marked with black streaks and ridges. Dark masses at margin; but 
no crystals except those of the precipitant. 
5. Bichromate of Potash 
a. Crystalline sublimate. —The crystalline figure quickly dissolved; mossy 
forms float on surface, and brilliant crystals (stars, rosettes, and 
winged crystals, finely veined) spring up. Crystals permanent in dry 
spot. 
b. Watery sublimate (watered pattern, and drops).—Instantaneous de¬ 
velopment of innumerable brilliant crystals, consisting of rosettes* 
winged crystals, and patterns of which the elements are disks and 
prisms. Some crystals float on surface. Crystals remain in dry spot. 
c. Smoked sublimate (large coarse specimen).—Instantaneous solution, 
and immediate formation of groups of crystals of immense size and 
rare beauty, like fine brilliants closely set, or beautiful feathers spring¬ 
ing from a centre, and, in some places, at the end of some member of 
a group, a fan-like layer of fine radiating lines covering a considerable 
surface, and at the borders of these again, fine bold crystals. Some of 
the feathery crystals (part of a group) fill the whole diameter of the 
field; also detached solid crystals of many forms, among which are 
seen four- and six-sided prisms. Many of the crystals may be fitly 
compared to smoked diamonds. Crystals permanent in dry spot. 
6. Nitro-prusside of Sodium (t^o)- 
a. Crystalline sublimate. —Immediate mossy scum, large rosettes spring¬ 
ing from the crystalline patterns, and elsewhere. These patterns gra¬ 
dually dissolved. In dry spot, traces of the sublimate undissolved. 
Coarse crystals consisting of ovoid plates, some projecting vertically 
from the glass. 
b. Watery sublimate. —Instantaneous formation of many crystals, thin 
and disk-shaped, on radiating lines. Mossy scum. In dry spot, 
numerous circular spots made up of disks, and the crystalline form of 
the nitro-prusside mottled and obscured by them. 
c. Smoked sublimate. —Instantaneous development of innumerable brilliant 
crystals (rosettes, winged crystals, and scissor-shaped) on the smoked 
globules. The crystals everywhere very distinct, with dark defined 
borders. In dry spot the smoked globules full of coarse dark crystals, 
and innumerable small crystals scattered over the field ; also some 
crystalline forms, as in b. 
These descriptions, written with the reactions going on under the microscope, 
or complete in the dry spot, furnish a sufficient answer to the question now 
under examination. It is clear that in the case of morphine, and probably in the 
case of other alkaloids which yield crystalline sublimates, very strongly marked 
and apparently characteristic reactions are obtained with both the watery and 
smoked varieties of sublimate. Hence, if, in any case, we fail of obtaining the 
crystalline sublimate which we desire as being most characteristic, we may still 
interrogate the watery or smoked deposit with an excellent chance of getting a 
marked reaction. 
It will, indeed, have been observed that the finest crystalline forms spring, in 
four cases out of six, out of the smoked sublimates ; and though the other two 
forms yield results remarkable for rapidity and brilliancy, they are equalled in 
these qualities, and greatly surpassed in the element of size, by the smoked 
variety. Of its reactions it is no exaggeration to say, that in the size and 
