72  Chemistry  of  Alkaloid  Estimations.     { AFebJruUaryP?9ao8m' 
differ  in  that  they  dissolve  when  more  tartaric  acid  is  added.  Upon 
this  fact  is  based  the  elimination  of  ammonium  compounds  in  the 
estimation  of  alkaloids.  Finally,  Fromme  has  claimed  that  fats  and 
waxes  may  interfere  in  the  estimation  of  alkaloids  ;  thus,  when  a 
drug  is  treated  with  ammonia  water  and  ether,  the  fat  contained  in 
the  drug  is  converted  to  soap  by  the  alkali  used  and  passes  into 
the  etheral  solution.  If  in  this  etheral  solution  the  alkaloid  is  esti- 
mated with  standard  acid  a  part  of  the  acid  will  be  used  to  decom- 
pose the  soap,  but  will  be  calculated  as  having  been  used  to 
neutralize  alkaloid. 
Decomposition  of  Chloroform  by  Alkaloids. — Recently  A.  Panchaud 
reported  that  cinchona  alkaloids  readily  decompose  chloroform  with 
formation  of  hydrogen  chloride.  He  reported  that  in  the  assay  of 
cinchona  the  extracted  cinchona  alkaloids  were  dissolved  in  chloro- 
form one  evening,  and  when  these  were  titrated,  the  following 
morning,  from  20  to  100  per  cent,  of  the  alkaloid  was  found  to  have 
been  neutralized  by  the  hydrogen  chloride  produced  in  the  decom- 
position of  the  chloroform.  Since  the  decomposition  of  *0229 
gramme  chlorolorm  will  yield  an  amount  of  hydrochloric  acid  suffi- 
cient to  neutralize  -120  gramme  alkaloid,  the  possible  error  is 
obvious.  A.  Simmer,  working  at  the  University  of  Strasburg 
under  Professor  Schaer,  has  studied  this  question  in  detail  and  has 
not  confirmed  Panchaud's  results.  While  he  found  that  a  number 
of  alkaloids  do  decompose  chloroform  with  formation  of  chloride 
the  amount  of  chloroform  so  decomposed  is  slight,  even  when  the 
alkaloids  are  in  contact  with  the  chloroform  for  a  prolonged  time 
and  when  the  chloroform  is  heated  to  boiling.  The  danger  of  error 
in  the  estimation  of  alkaloids  due  to  the  decomposition  of  chloro- 
form therefore  does  not  appear  to  be  very  great,  but  the  report  of 
Panchaud  nevertheless  remains  that  chloroform  is  a  body  easily  de- 
composed, especially  by  alkaline  substances. 
Morphine  a  Phenol. — In  the  present  United  States  Pharmacopoeia 
the  purity  of  morphine,  obtained  in  the  assay  of  opium  and  its 
preparations,  is  judged  by  its  solubility  in  lime  water.  This  test  is 
based  on  the  phenolic  character  of  morphine.  That  is,  the  morphine 
molecule  contains  two  hydroxyl  groups,  one  of  which  is  of  the 
same  character  as  the  hydroxyl  group  in  phenol  (carbolic  acid), 
thus : 
