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ON A SUBSTITUTE FOR M'MUNN's ELIXIR OF OPIUM. 
into an elongated glass funnel containing filtering paper ; a super- 
stratum of water equivalent to the bulk of the whole mass is 
added. When 12 ounces of liquid have been filtered, the alcohol 
is added to the filtered solution.* 
About two-thirds of the substance of the opium is contained in the 
solution. The residue, consisting chiefly in resin, caoutchouc and 
narcotina, together with the ligneous matter. Consequently, my 
substitute is nothing more or less than an aqueous solution of 
opium, nearly free from narcotina, preserved by alcohol. 
Various names could be devised for it, but as it is intended to 
represent an article already used under a popular name, perhaps 
the appellation of " Elixir of Opium" might be retained for it, if 
no other be suggested better adapted. 
^Note by the Editor. — We are glad to receive a communication from 
New York. Notwithstanding the many able Pharmaceutists in that city, 
they rarely favor our pages with a contribution. 
The unpleasant effects of ordinary tincture of opium when administered 
to certain patients have long since originated attempts to modify that prepa- 
ration, witness the denarcotized laudanum, Battley's sedative solution,and the 
preparation suggested by the late Mr. Duhamel, (Amer. Journ. Pharm. vol. 
xviii. p. 16,) which last is almost identical with the " Elixir" of Mr. Dupuy. 
The latter, however, has the advantage in more completely exhausting the 
opium and in being less alcoholic when finished. In common with many others, 
we have given an occasional thought to the probable mode of preparing the so 
called "McMunn's Elixir of Opium." It contains meconate of morphia, and 
hence is prepared with neutral solvents, so as not to disturb the natural 
state of combination in which the morphia exists. In glancing over the 
long list of the constituents of opium with the view of singling out those 
to which the unpleasant effects of laudanum may be attributed, perhaps 
none are more obnoxious to suspicion, than the odorous principle, 
resin, acid extractive, thebaina, and perhaps codeia and narcotina 
to some extent, although O'Shaughnessy and others, have shown that it is 
extremely doubtful whether the latter really possesses any disturbing 
quality of the kind. By the following process, a solution of opium can be 
made, deprived almost wholly of the principles it is desirable to avoid, and 
presenting the morphia in the form of its natural salt: 
Take of Opium in powder, ten drachms (troy,) 
« Ether, 
« Alcohol, each, four fluid ounces, 
" Water, a sufficient quantity. 
*The proportion of opium is the same as that in Tinct. Opii of the 
U. S. P. 
