158 
Deodorized  Opium  and  Tincture. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1       April,  1902. 
quantity  to  preserve  the  preparation,  which  was  then  made  up  to 
the  strength  of  laudanum. 
Another  writer  of  that  period  gives  the  following  formula :  Make 
an  aqueous  extract  of  opium  from  the  crude  drug,  and  take  of  this 
Dissolve  the  extract  in  the  boiling  water  ;  allow  to  cool ;  add  the 
alcohol ;  let  stand  for  twenty-four  hours  ;  filter  through  paper  and 
add  enough  water  to  measure  20  ounces. 
M.  Robiquet,  of  Paris,  he  who  named  narcotine,  proposed  a  new 
mode  of  preparing  an  extract  of  opium  in  the  Journal  de  Physi- 
ologic Experimental  for  January,  1821,  as  follows  : 
Make  a  solution  of  the  crude  opium  in  cold  water  in  the  same 
way  as  if  the  aqueous  extract  were  to  be  prepared ;  filter  and  evap- 
orate the  solution  to  the  consistency  of  a  thick  syrup ;  shake  this 
repeatedly  with  ether  ;  decant  the  ether  and  evaporate  the  solution 
of  opium  to  the  consistency  of  an  extract. 
In  the  year  1828,  Dr.  Robert  Hare,  Professor  of  Chemistry  in 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  suggested  the  use  of  ether  in  the 
process  of  preparing  laudanum,  and  by  its  use  removing  the  objec- 
tionable principles  contained  in  this  official  preparation. 
Early  in  the  30's  there  appeared  on  the  American  market  a  prep- 
aration entitled  "  McMunn's  Elixir  of  Opium."  This,  like  Battley's, 
was  a  secret  and  a  proprietary  remedy,  and  by  being  extensively 
advertised,  soon  became  a  well-known  nostrum,  much  used  by  the 
medical  profession,  and  its  popularity  has  continued  to  the  present 
time.  Although  it  has  no  merit  of  originality — for  it  was  subse- 
quently ascertained  that  the  process  for  its  manufacture  was  that 
suggested  and  published  by  Professor  Hare— yet  it  has  flourished, 
nevertheless,  and  prospered,  while  the  original  discoverer  received 
no  pecuniary  reward  and  little  credit — another  illustration  of  how 
quackery  succeeds  at  the  expense  of  honorable  scientific  work. 
Augustine  Duhamel,  in  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  1846, 
commenting  on  McMunn's  Elixir  of  Opium,  stated  that  an  equally 
good  and  efficient  liquid  preparation  of  opium  could  be  obtained  by 
exhausting  the  opium  with  cold  water.  He  laid  special  stress  upon 
the  fact  that  the  noxious  principle,  narcotine,  being  very  insoluble  in 
cold  water,  was,  with  the  resin,  caoutchouc  and  ligneous  matter,  not 
Extract  of  opium 
Boiling  water 
Alcohol  .... 
750  grains. 
16  ounces. 
4  ounces. 
