MORPHINE. 
§ 359-1 
2Q5 
1. Benzene mainly extracts meconine, which dissolves in sulphuric 
acid very gradually (in twenty-four to forty-eight hours), with a green 
colour passing into red. Meconine has no alkaloidal reaction. 
2. Amyl alcohol dissolves small quantities of meconic acid, identified 
by striking a blood-red colour with ferric chloride. 
If now the amyl alcohol is removed with the aid of petroleum ether, 
and the fluid made alkaline by ammonia— 1 
1. Benzene extracts narcotine, codeine , and thebaine. On evapora¬ 
tion of the benzene the alkaloidal residue may be dissolved in water, 
acidified with sulphuric acid, and after filtration, on adding ammonia 
in excess, thebaine and narcotine are precipitated, codeine remaining 
in solution. The dried precipitate, if it contain thebaine, becomes 
blood-red when treated with cold concentrated sulphuric acid, 
while narcotine is shown by a violet colour developing gradually 
when the substance is dissolved in dilute sulphuric acid 1 : 5, and 
gently warmed. The codeine in the ammoniacal solution can be 
recovered by shaking up with benzene, and recognised by the red 
colour which the solid substance gives when treated with a little sugar 
and sulphuric acid. 
2. Chloroform especially dissolves the narceine, which, on evapora¬ 
tion of the chloroform, may be identified by its general characters, and 
by its solution in Frohde’s reagent becoming a beautiful blue colour. 
Small quantities of morphine may be extracted with codeine. 
3. Amyl alcohol extracts from the alkaline solution morphine, 
identified by its physical characters, by its forming a crystalline precipi¬ 
tate with iodine and hydriodic acid, and the reaction with iodic acid to 
be described. 
§ 359. Morphine (C 17 H 19 NO(OH) 2 -fH 2 0). — Morphine occurs in 
commerce as a white powder, sp. gr. 1*205, usually in the form of more 
or less perfect six-sided prisms, but sometimes in that of white silky 
needles. When heated in the subliming cell (described at p. 260), 
faint nebulae, resolved by high microscopic powers into minute dots, 
appear on the upper disc at 150°. As the temperature is raised the 
spots become coarser, and at 188° distinct crystals may be obtained, the 
best being formed at nearly 200°, at which temperature morphine begins 
distinctly to brown, melt, and carbonise. At temperatures below 188°, 
instead of minute dots, the sublimate may consist of white circular spots 
or foliated patterns. One part of morphine, according to P. Chastaing, 
is soluble at a temperature of 3° in 33,333 parts of water ; at 22°, in 
4545 parts ; at 42°, 4280 ; and at 100°, 4262. It is scarcely soluble in 
ether or benzene. Absolute alcohol, according to Pettenkofer, dissolves 
in the cold one-fortieth of its weight; boiling, one-thirtieth. Amyl 
1 Potash or soda must not bo used for the purpose of alkalising, because of tho 
phenolic nature of morphine. 
