TITRATED  OPIUM  EXTRACT — SVAPNIA.  225 
to  be  a  matter  of  dollars  and  cents  there  will  be  found  those  who  in  put- 
ting up  their  prescriptions  will  substitute,  either  ignorantly  or  designedly 
— if  not  exactly  the  2  per  cent. — at  least  the  lower  grades  for  the  higher, 
which  was  meant  by  the  prescriber. 
The  effect  intended  to  be  produced  necessarily  fails,  and  the  physician 
possibly  may  be  dismissed  in  disgrace,-or,  if  from  long  acquaintance  he 
possesses  the  confidence  of  the  patient,  the  failure  is  attributed  to  any 
thing  but  its  real  source.  Cannot  the  variability — you  may  query — in 
the  strength  of  the  opium  be  obviated  or  remedied  ?  Certainly  it  can. 
But  not  without  making  it  a  speciality,  as  morphia  already  is,  and  a  con- 
sequent increase  of  the  cost;  the  very  objection  you  make  to  our  prepa- 
ration. 
The  same  objection  with  the  same  force  obtains  against  the  deodorized 
tincture  of  the  Pharmacopoeia;  for  you  will  certainly  not  insist  that  the 
tincture  made  from  an  opium  of  7  per  cent.,  morphiometrical  strength,  is 
uniform  with  the  same  made  from  a  sample  yielding  1.5  per  cent,  of 
morphia.  Is  not  svapnia  then,  in  this  respect  at  least,  better  than  the 
tincture  ? 
The  2d  charge  is  that  there  are  many  constitutions  and  diseases  where 
opiates  are  required,  but  in  which  the  crude  opium  and  morphia  cannot 
be  tolerated.  In  many,  if  not  all  these  cases,  my  combination  of  the 
hypnotic  alkaloids  of  opium  will  have  a  most  decidedly  happy  effect. 
Very  many  over-conservative  persons  in  the  medical  profession,  whose 
experience  and  habits  of  prescribing  are  founded  upon  the  results  ob- 
tained from  opium  and  morphia,  will  hardly  look  up  over  the  edge  of  the 
groove  of  habit  they  have  cut  for  themselves  so  deep  as  to  be  almost  buried 
by  it — hardly  look  up  and  believe  that  any  possible  improvement  maybe 
made  in  the  administration  of  such  an  ofd-time  drug  as  opium  ;  to  such 
indeed,  the  medical  syeciality  svapnia  hardly  appeals,  but  to  the  younger, 
or  at  least  more  liberal  minded  ones,  it  does.  Its  good  fortune  as  a  new 
remedy,  besides  its  intrinsic  merit,  will  depend  much  upon  its  being  kept 
— for  a  time  at  least — a  special  manufacture  in  the  hands  of  those  most 
interested  in  its  success  therapeutically  and  financially,  so  that  the  pro- 
fessional public  may  have  the  article  exactly  as  I  make  it  and  made  under 
my  personal  supervision.  • 
I  am  not  willing,  at  least  until  the  reputation  of  the  article  based  upon 
it  RS  made  by  myself  shall  be  fully  established,  to  put  in  the  power  of 
evej'y  ignorant  or  unprincipled  person  claiming  the  titleof  pharmacist 
to  palm  off  on  the  professional  public  something  called  "svapnia"  or 
purified  opium,  but  which  would  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  no  more  repre- 
sent my  article  than  the  tinctura  opii,  as  fv)und  in  nine  cases  out  often  of 
the  shops,  represents  that  of  the  Pharmacopoeia. 
In  regard  to  the  cost  of  opium  being  increased  by  its  being  made  a 
speciality,  I  think  this  inference  is  more  an  assumption  than  a  reality, 
for  it  should  be  compared  with  other  manufactures  from  opium,  for  in- 
stance morphia,  one  grain  of  svapnia  being  equivalent  in  anodyne  power 
to  one-third  of  a  grain  of  morphia,  and  yet  the  svapnia  is  thre-^-fourths 
less  in  price  than  morphia.       Most  respectfully  yours,    J.  M.  Bigelow. 
It  will  be  observed  that  the  claims  for  svapnia  are,  that  it 
owes  its  power  to  the  meconates  of  morphia,  codeia  and  narceia 
only,  and  that  it  is  deprived  of  other  alkaloids  and  hurtful  in- 
gredients by  a  process,  or  series  of  processes,  which  does  not 
alter  these  natural  salts.    The  extract  thus  produced  is  assayed,, 
15 
