Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1897. 
Notes  on  Opium  Assaying. 
345 
results  in  comparing  these  two  methods.  The  ash  obtained  by 
igniting  crude  morphine,  was  considered  to  be  pure  calcium  oxide  or 
carbonate  (depending  upon  the  temperature  of  ignition),  derived 
from  calcium  meconate,  until  the  writer  in  Am.  Jour.  Pharm.,  Sep- 
tember, 1894,  proved  that  the  ash  was  a  very  complex  mixture,  and 
this  has  since  been  verified  by  Mr.  L.  F.  Kebler.  The  writer  also 
raised  the  question  as  to  the  effect  of  lime-water  upon  this  complex 
mixture  of  salts,  giving  rise  to  the  ash  ;  experiments  made  since  that 
time  enable  me  to  say  that  the  lime-water  solution,  even  after  repre- 
cipitation  of  the  morphine,  is  always  more  or  less  colored ;  the 
reprecipitated  morphine  dissolved  in  dilute  sulphuric  acid  frequently 
yields  a  pink  to  rose-red  colored  solution,  due  to  some  foreign 
organic  substance  which  requires  several  reprecipitations  for  its 
elimination ;  in  dissolving  crude  morphine  in  lime-water  I  have 
observed  that,  if  perfect  solution  does  not  result,  a  fine  white  precipi- 
tate deposits  at  first,  which,  in  the  course  of  the  half  hour  allowed 
for  the  solvent  action  of  the  lime-water,  changes  to  a  yellow  floccu- 
lent  precipitate ;  0050  gramme  of  a  precipitate  (obtained  from  the 
mother-liquor  of  an  opium  assay),  allowed  to  stand  for  half  an  hour 
with  10  c.c.  lime-water,  then  filtered,  and  washed  first  with  lime- 
water,  then  with  distilled  water,  dried  at  50-5  5 0  C,  and  weighed, 
showed  an  increase  in  weight  of  0-004  5  it  na-d  also  changed  in 
appearance  as  just  described.  These  experiments  confirm  my  pre- 
vious supposition  of  the  chemical  change  taking  place  by  the  lime- 
water  solution,  but  I  had  rather  expected  a  decrease  in  the  weight, 
because  of  the  presence  of  potassium  meconate,  and  its  possible 
reaction  with  lime-water  to  form  calcium  meconate  and  soluble 
potassium  hydrate  ;  but  the  insoluble  part  in  lime-water  gave  appar- 
ently as  good  a  test  for  potassium  salts  with  platinic  chloride  as  did 
the  original  substance.  An  interchange  between  magnesium  meco- 
nate or  phosphate  and  calcium  hydrate,  because  of  the  formation  of 
insoluble  calcium  meconate  or  phosphate  and  insoluble  magnesium 
hydrate,  will  cause  an  increase  in  weight  and  seems  probable.  From 
these  experiments,  we  must  say  that  all  of  the  organic  matter  is  not 
revealed  by  this  test,  and  that  the  ash-yielding  substances  are,  at 
least  in  part,  chemically  changed  ;  so  that  this  correction  can  also 
not  be  considered  an  accurate  one. 
The  ash  method  will  not  reveal  organic  matter,  and  based  upon 
the  assumption  that  the  ash  consists  entirely  of  calcium  oxide  or 
