Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1902. 
Deodorized  Opium  and  Tincture. 
163 
tincture,  on  account  of  its  uncertain  character,  its  low  range  of  sol- 
vent power  and  its  disagreeable  odor." 
We  have  now  come  to  the  last  contribution  of  our  review.  It 
was  presented  at  a  pharmaceutical  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  Col- 
lege of  Pharmacy  in  November,  1900,  and  was  printed  in  the 
December  number  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  for  that 
year.  It  is  entitled,  "  An  Improved  Process  for  the  Preparation  of 
Deodorized  Tincture  of  Opium,"  by  Frederick  T.  Gordon,  and  is 
based  upon  the  substitution  of  paraffin  for  ether  in  removing  the 
noxious  principles  from  the  preparation. 
We  will  now  comment  upon  the  reviewed  processes.  During 
the  70's,  in  making  a  lot  of  deodorized  tincture  of  opium,  an  emul- 
sification  took  place,  which  was  so  persistent  that  it  baffled  our 
efforts  to  effect  a  separation  of  the  benzin  from  the  concentrated 
solution  of  opium.  Mr.  R.  Rother,  who  was  at  the  time  in  the 
employ  of  the  writer,  suggested  the  addition  of  melted  vaseline  to 
the  emulsified  solution.  This  happy  thought  of  Mr.  Rother,  which 
speedily  produced  the  separation  desired,  led  to  further  experimen- 
tation with  this  fat.  However,  it  soon  became  apparent  that  when- 
ever vaseline  was  employed  in  the  process,  it  was  always  at  a  loss 
of  the  morphine  salt,  and  its  use  was  therefore  discontinued.  A 
more  satisfactory  method  which  we  found  to  prevent  the  emulsion 
is  to  concentrate  the  opium  infusion  to  but  one-half  of  its  bulk 
and  shake  with  the  benzin,  when  it  will  separate  readily. 
Some  time  later,  when  Mr.  Rother  had  gone  into  business  on  his 
own  account,  he  published  the  paper  advising  the  mixture  of  vase- 
line and  spermaceti,  a  trial  of  which  at  the  time  and  experiments 
since  with  other  fats  have  convinced  the  writer  that,  if  any  part  of 
the  morphine  is  in  the  free  alkaloidal  state,  it  will  be  taken  up  and 
lost  in  the  process  of  deodorization  when  such  mediums  are  employed. 
On  the  publication  of  Mr.  Gordon's  article  recommending  paraffin 
for  this  purpose,  the  writer  made  trials  with  three  different  lots  of 
opium,  the  solutions  of  which  were  assayed  each  time  just  previous 
to  treatment  with  the  paraffin  and  after  such  treatment,  three 
assays  being  made  in  each  case.    The  results  of  this  process  were : 
Before.  After. 
12*91  9-24 
13-87  8-58 
13-14  8-40 
showing  an  average  loss  of  4-65  per  cent,  of  morphine. 
