MORPHIA  STRENaTH  OF  COMMERCIAL  OPIUM. 
159 
The  sample  of  "  Liebig's  extract  "  made  by  us  is  similar  in 
color  and  taste  to  the  South  American  preparation  obtained 
from  Messrs.  Van  Abbot  &  Co.,  London.  Recently  a  sample  of 
our  product  was  subjected  to  analysis  by  Dr.  F.  Mahla,  and 
found  to  contain  too  great  proportion  of  water,  as  also  a  small 
quantity  of  coagulated  albumen,  that  had  passed  through  the 
strainer.  These  defects  having  been  remedied,  we  believe  the 
specimen  now  before  the  Convention  is  similar  in  composition 
with  that  sold  in  Europe.  We  cannot  understand  why  so  ex- 
orbitant a  figure  should  be  asked  in  Europe  for  the  different 
"Liebig's  extracts  "  in  their  market.  It  certainly  can  be  sold 
at  one-half  the  price  now  asked  for  it,  and  still  afford  the  manu- 
facturer a  handsome  profit. 
The  sample  of  extract  of  mutton,  also  submitted,  represents 
forty  times  its  weight  of  clear  meat  and  is  made  by  our  process. 
The  meat  biscuits  represent  four  pounds  of  fresh  beef  to  each 
pound  of  biscuit. 
Chicago,  Rl.  —Proc.  Am.  Phar.  Assoc.  1868. 
ON  THE  MORPHIA  STRENGTH  OF  COMMERCIAL  OPIUM. 
By.  p.  W.  Bedford. 
Query  18. — What  is  the  morphia  strength  of  commercial  powdered 
opium  (a  number  of  samples)  ;  and  what  is  the  most  ready  means  of  de- 
termining it  ? 
In  accepting  this  query  the  writer  continues  a  subject  on 
which  he  presented  a  paper  to  this  Association  some  eight  years 
ago. 
During  the  past  year  he  has  examined  eight  specimens  of 
powdered  opium,  purchased  from  wholesale  houses  in  our  city. 
The  results  have  been  as  follows  : 
Sa 
nple  No.  1  contained  9*40  per  cent,  morphia. 
9-01 
6-  33 
8-10 
7-  05 
6-75 
6-00 
6-25 
