OPIUM. 
§ 353-1 
Water dissolves nearly everything except resin, caoutchouc, and 
woody fibre. Free morphine would be left insoluble ; but it seems 
always to be combined with meconic and acetic acids. The solubility 
of free narcotine in water is extremely small. 
Alcohol dissolves resin and caoutchouc, and all the alkaloids and 
their combinations, with meconic acid, etc, 
Amylic Alcohol dissolves all the alkaloids, if they are in a free state, 
and it also takes up a little of the resin. 
Ether, Benzene, and Carbon Sulphide do not dissolve the resin, and 
only slightly morphine, if free ; but they dissolve the other free alkaloids 
as well as caoutchouc. 
Acids dissolve all the alkaloids and the resin. 
Fixed Alkalies, in excess, dissolve in part resin ; they also dissolve 
morphine freely ; narcotine remains insoluble. 
Lime Water dissolves morphine, but is a solvent for narcotine only 
in presence of morphine. 
Ammonia dissolves only traces of morphine; but narceine and 
codeine readily. It does not dissolve the other alkaloids, nor does it 
dissolve the resin. 
§ 353. Assay of Opium. —In the former edition of this work the 
processes of Teschemacher and Smith, of Dott, of Schacht, of Fleury, 
and of Douzard were described in detail; but the process laid down in 
the British Pharmacopoeia of 1914, essentially that of Douzard, is as 
good as any, and may be here detailed. The quantity of opium to be 
taken and the reagents are as follows :— 
Opium in No. 50 powder, dried at 60°, 8 grms. ; freshly prepared 
calcium hydroxide, 2 grms. ; ammonium chloride, 2 grms ; alcohol, ether, 
and water, of each a sufficient quantity. Triturate together the opium, 
calcium hydroxide, and 20 c.c. of water in a mortar until a uniform mixture 
results ; add 60 c.c. of water, and stir occasionally during half an hour. 
To 51 c.c. of the liquid (representing 5 grms. of opium) in a convenient 
vessel add 5 c.c. of alcohol (90 per cent.) and 25 c.c. of ether ; shake the 
mixture ; add the ammonium chloride ; shake well and frequently during 
half an hour ; set aside for twelve hours for the morphine to separate. 
Counterbalance two small filters ; place one within the other in such a 
way that the triple fold of the inner filter shall be superposed upon the 
single fold of the outer filter ; wet them with ether ; remove the ethereal 
layer of the liquid in the vessel as completely as possible by means of a 
small pipette, transferring the liquid to the filter ; rinse the vessel with 
10 c.c. of ether, again transferring the ethereal layer by means of the 
pipette to the filter ; wash the filter with a total of 5 c.c. of ether, added 
slowly and in portions. Let the filter dry in the air, and pour upon it 
the contents of the vessel in portions, in such a way as to transfer the 
granular crystalline morphine as completely as possible to the filter. 
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