50 
ORIGINAL AND EXTRACTED ARTICLES. 
THEBOLACTIC ACID. 
BY MESSRS. T. AND II. SMITH. 
As it has been remarked that we have never published the process for obtain¬ 
ing Thebolactic Acid, may we take the liberty of submitting to you the process 
here embodied, which at the first we printed, circulated, and supplied to the 
jurors of the International Exhibition of 1862, when the thebolactic acid was 
first publicly exhibited? We feel called upon to take this step by seeing in the 
*' Dictionary of Chemistry’ (by Watts), now publishing, Thebolactic Acid (under 
the head “ Opium”) classed as one of the doubtful constituents of Opium, and 
Dr. Thomas Anderson, Professor of Chemistry, made responsible for that doubtful 
character. In a paper read by Dr. Anderson at the Chemical Society on the 1st 
May, 1862, and published in the Journal of the Chemical Society, thebolactic 
acid is ranked as one of the “well-determined” constituents of opium; and in 
a letter we just have from him, he says, “ I have never entertained any doubt 
as to your having extracted from it (opium) an acid which Stenhouse found to 
have the same composition as lactic acid.” 
The ready crystallizability of the salt of lime gives the means of obtaining the 
thebolactic acid from opium. 
After all the alkaloids have been thrown down by an alkali from the impure 
mother-liquids of morphia, the concentrated liquid is digested with levigated 
litharge at a heat of about 140°Falir., with frequent stirring. 
The thinned and filtered liquid, having been then concentrated to a thick con¬ 
sistency, is mixed up with a large quantity of S. V. R. From the filtered spiri¬ 
tuous liquid the bases are carefully thrown down as sulphates by the addition of 
sulphuric acid (of which, to do this, a large quantity is necessary). The filtered 
liquid, after careful neutralization with milk of lime, is distilled to recover the 
spirit. 
_On the contents of the still being then brought to a syrupy consistence, and 
laid aside for a week or so, the syrupy liquid sets into a crvstalline mass of the- 
bolactate of lime. 
Having obtained the lime salt, it is easily purified by repeated crystallization 
and the use of charcoal. After bringing the salt to a snowy whiteness the acid 
can then, by the addition of the equivalent quantity of sulphuric acid and the 
use of S. Y. R., or other obvious means, be obtained in a separate state. 
From the unvarying occurrence of this acid in opium, and its abundance, 
there cannot be any more doubt of its pre-existence there than of meconic acid, 
codeia, thebeia, or morphia itself. Since its discovery, the general yield from 
Tu I,key ppium of the thebolactate of lime has been about two per cent. 
The circumstance of the quantity of meconic acid obtained from opium being 
decidedly less than corresponds to the morphia and other organic bases, is a 
strong argument in itself for the pre-existence of thebolactic acid, and from 
this conviction arose the search for, and discovery of, this new acid in opium. 
Though we have some reason to think Mr. Watts rather loose, our object 
here is not to complain, but to draw attention to an interesting matter. 
. 9 ur belief that thebolactic acid exists as a constituent ingredient of opium 
is founded on the fact that it was separated from at least twenty different con¬ 
signments of opium of different seasons, and that the yield was uniform, and, as 
nearly as could be judged, invariable in quantity. Altogether we prepared 
about one hundredweight of thebolactate of lime, most of which we purified 
to a snowy whiteness. 
