598 
CRYPTOPIA, A NEW ALKALOID DISCOVEKED IN OPIUM. 
ture of the two salts, of the muriate of thebaia and the muriate of cryptopia, 
the red and blue of the mixed reactions havinj^, of course, given a purple. It 
is our belief that the salt, as obtained from the mother liquid of muriate of the¬ 
baia, is a chemical compound of the two salts ; nor does this belief seem unrea¬ 
sonable, for, on making the muriate of cryptopia with the pure alkaloid, we 
have never been able, by repeated crystallization, to get it in such a state as to 
give other than a blue colour with sulphuric acid, nor to produce crystals at all 
sitnilar to those in question. It soon became quite clear to us, that in order to 
obtain the new substance in a quantity sufficient to enable us to investigate its 
nature more closely, it would be necessary to devise some better method than 
the one explained. This was the plan we adopted. The hard pressed cakes of 
the last crystallization of a number of preparations of muriate of thebaia were 
dissolved in as small a quantity of boiling water as possible, and the liquid fil¬ 
tered hot. On cooling, we found the liquid to have crystallized, not in hard 
stony crystals like those of muriate of thebaia, but in a softer state, and gene¬ 
rally in cauliflower-like masses. The whole was then subjected to strong pres¬ 
sure, and a portion of the solid cake, after being dried and powdered, we boiled 
with rectified spirits in the proportion of one to five. The liquid we filtered 
hot; and the mother liquid, after perfect crystallizatign, (the full quantity 
of liquid being kept up by the spirituous washings of the crystals of muriate of 
thebaia obtained by previous crystallization,) we again boiled with the same 
quantity of the crystalline cake as before. These operations we repeated as 
long as the crystals yielded gave an unmixed hard crystallization ; but by-and- 
by, perhaps after six or seven crystallizations, the muriate of cryptopia accu¬ 
mulating more and more, we found that a whiter crystallization, in soft tufts, 
formed on the surface of the hard mineral-like muriate of thebaia. Whenever 
this appearance presented itself the mother liquid was poured off into an open 
vessel, and as the spirit evaporated the whole liquid set into a soft mass. (This 
takes place sometimes spontaneously, sometimes when stirred.) Next day we 
threw the soft mass upon a cloth and pressed out the liquid. The cake left was 
almost pure muriate of cryptopia. 
The salt can be very easily rendered colourless, by crystallization and a small 
quantity of pure animal charcoal. It is not unworthy of remark, that the 
bleaching effect of charcoal is much more marked in the case of the salts of 
cryptopia than in those of the other alkaloids of opium. 
There is no difficulty in knowing if the salt obtained is mixed with thebaia. 
If the minutest particle gives a blue colour with sulphuric acid, it is pure ; but 
if it give the least tinge of purple, it still contains thebaia. To obtain the pure 
alkaloid’it must be precipitated from its watery solution by ammonia, and the 
precipitate, after washing and drying, is to be washed freely with ether or spirit, 
either of which dissolves the thebaia readily, but has little action on the cryp¬ 
topia. 
The crystallized alkaloid is prepared by boiling the precipitated alkali in rec¬ 
tified spirit, and, as its solubility in spirit is very small, a large quantity of 
spirit must be used. The alkaloid crystallizes after cooling, and on being 
allowed to remain undisturbed for some time. The crystals, which are partly 
separated on the sides,—partly, and in greatest quantity, at the bottom,—are 
very minute, but by the aid of a powerful magnifying glass are found to be 
composed, especially those on the sides of the glass, of beautiful groups of trans¬ 
parent six-sided prisms. The crystals given by twenty ounces of rectified spirit, 
saturated at a boiling heat, do not weigh more than sixty grains; and a thou¬ 
sand water grain measures of the spirituous mother liquid, after complete crys¬ 
tallization, only give, on evaporation, a weight of 0'79 gr., so that cryptopia 
requires the large quantity of 1265 parts of cold rectified spirit for solution. 
The quantity of cryptopia yielded by opium is very small indeed : we have 
