228  TITRATED  OPIUM  EXTRACT — SVAPNIA. 
magnesia  and  sufficient  water  to  form  a  creamy  paste,  allowed  to 
stand  half  an  hour  to  liberate  the  alkaloids,  and  then  shaken 
with  repeated  portions  of  ether,  -735,  till  exhausted.  On  evap- 
orating the  ether  in  a  tared  test  tube,  the  sides  of  the  glass  were 
coated  with  acicular  crystals.  The  concentrated  ethereal  solu- 
tion was  alkaline  to  test  paper.  When  the  ether  and  moisture 
had  disappeared  the  contents  of  the  glass  weighed  0*9  grain, 
consisting,  besides  the  crystals,  of  some  amorphous  colored  matter, 
amounting  in  all  to  4*5  per  cent,  of  the  svapnia.  This  was  treated 
with  liquor  potassse  until  deprived  of  matter  soluble  in  that 
liquid ;  the  putty-like  residue  was  then  washed,  dried,  and  dis- 
solved in  hot,  strong  alcohol,  from  which  it  crystallized  with  the 
greatest  facility  ;  a  drop  of  this  solution  evaporated  on  a  micro- 
scope slide,  was  found  to  consist  of  several  distinct  crystalline 
forms,  the  most  abundant  of  which  was  narcotina  prisms,  well 
marked.  Some  of  these  from  the  crystallizing  vessel,  gave  a 
deep  yellow  hue  with  NO^,  and  when  dropped  on  SO^HO  with  a 
trace  of  nitric  gave  a  deep  red  coloration.  Shaken  with  water  but 
little  dissolved  from  the  entire  crystallization,  and  the  solution 
Wiis  so  feebly  alkaline  that  a  fragment  of  light  red  litmus  paper 
required  an  hour  to  restore  its  blueness.  The  proportion  of 
codeia  was  therefore  very  small.  The  third  form  of  crystals 
were  in  stell?e  of  minute  pointed  prisms.  Narceia  being  insoluble 
in  ether,  they  were,  of  course,  not  that  substance,  and  no  attempt 
was  made-to  determine  their  true  character.  Morphia  was  not  de- 
tected among  the  first  ethereal  crystals.  Assuming  the  ethereal 
alkaloids  to  amount  to  2*5  per  cent,  of  the  svapnia,  the  whole 
alkaloidal  matter  here  obtained  is  7*1  per  cent,  exclusive  of  any 
narceia  present  ;  an  approach  to  the  9  per  cent,  claimed  by 
Dr.  Bigelow.  As  Dr.  Bigelow  says  his  process  avoids  any 
chemical  decomposition  of  the  natural  salts,  and  the  presence  of 
meconic  acid  in  svapnia  corroberates  this  view,  it  follows  that 
he  has  no  means  of  separating  that  portion  of  the  narcotina 
existing  in  a  saline  state ;  hence  it  must  remain  in  the  svapnia. 
On  the  other  hand.  Dr.  B.  rejecting  the  standard  of  a  fixed  pro- 
portion of  morphia,  and  adopting  that  of  a  fixed  gross  amount 
of  all  the  alkaloids,  it  follows  that  this  narcotina,  which  is  very 
variable  in  quantity  as  a  constituent  of  opium,  displaces  an  equal 
