AmXJp°r,nr;1P^rm-}      Deodorized  Opium  and  Tincture.  165 
In  our  long  experience  with  these  high-grade  gasolines  on  opium 
we  have  never  met  the  objection  of  a  disagreeable  odor  remaining 
in  the  finished  product.  In  making  inquiries  among  manufacturers 
who  employ  these  petroleum  ethers  in  extracting  oils,  fats,  resins, 
etc.,  from  drugs,  we  find  that  our  experience  is  borne  out.  We 
hope  that  the  committee  on  the  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  will 
give  an  official  name  to  these  lighter  products  of  petroleum  of  light 
specific  gravity,  by  which  name  they  can  be  secured  in  the  market. 
The  present  name,  benzin,  when  called  for,  does  not  bring  the 
product  which  the  Pharmacopoeia  demands. 
Referring  to  Professor  Patch's  table  of  comparison,  we  find  that 
ether  extracts  about  ]/2  per  cent,  more  morphine  than  is  extracted 
by  benzin ;  that  ether  removes,  if  not  all,  nearly  all  the  narcotine, 
while  benzin  takes  up  hardly  any.  As  Professor  Patch  has  no  other 
solvent  to  suggest,  and  has  tried  others,  we  must  still  adhere  to  our 
position  that  benzin  is  the  best  medium  for  deodorization. 
The  remaining  processes  and  formulas  that  have  been  suggested 
and  which  have  been  reviewed  in  this  paper  may  be  classed  under 
two  headings.  The  first  class  includes  those  by  which  the  opium 
is  extracted  by  cold  water,  the  infusion  evaporated  to  the  consist- 
ency of  a  dry  extract,  and  this  dissolved  again  in  water  and  alcohol 
added.  When  thus  prepared  such  products  are  but  aqueous  extracts 
of  opium  to  which  sufficient  alcohol  has  been  added  to  preserve 
them.  They  can  possess  no  other  medicinal  value  or  merit  over 
the  dry  extract  than  that  of  being  liquid,  and  but  serve  to  add 
to  the  already  large  number  of  preparations  that  overburden  the 
stock  of  the  drug  store. 
The  second  class  are  the  concentrated  aqueous  infusions,  treated 
with  ether  to  remove  the  noxious  principles  which  may  have  been 
taken  up  in  a  very  slight  degree  by  the  solvent  power  of  the  cold 
water  used  in  exhausting  the  opium.  These  possess  nothing  of 
merit  over  the  first  class  except  it  be  the  added  expense  due  to  the 
ether  treatment.  The  change  in  the  process  in  the  last  revision  of 
the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  is  somewhat  in  the  right  line,  for 
it  directs  the  use  of  hot  water  for  exhausting  the  opium,  by  which 
process  all  of  the  morphine,  codeine  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
narcotine  are  brought  into  solution;  however,  the  ether  treatment 
vitiates  much  of  the  good  arising  from  the  hot-water  treatment  by 
removing  the  narcotine.    The  term,  narcotine,  is  a  misnomer,  as  the 
