64 
ON ACETATE OF MORPHIA. 
sion of galls, owing to the tannic acid it contains, precipitates 
the morphia in the state of tannate under the form of white 
flocks, insoluble in water. 
Acetate of morphia considered under a medico legal 
head. An exposure of the means of detecting the presence of 
this compound is rendered interesting from its well known 
poisoning effects, as well as the celebrity attached to it, ac- 
quired by a criminal prosecution in 1824 before the court of 
assizes at Paris, wherein Dr. Castaing was charged with the 
murder of his friend Hyppolyti Ballet, by poisoning him with 
acetate of morphia. 
The man of art, charged with the duty of making the ne- 
cessary experiments to prove poisoning by acetate of mor- 
phia, should submit to the above mentioned reactives what re- 
mains of the substance supposed to have occasioned death : 
he should treat it, as well as its aqueous solution, by the means 
pointed out in the description of the distinctive characters 
of this salt. He will direct his researches to the matters 
ejected by vomiting, as well as those gathered in the digestive 
organs after death. 
When the matters under examination are liquid, it is neces- 
sary, after filtering, to evaporate them by a gentle heat in a 
porcelain capsule ; to treat the extract by boiling alcohol of 
40°, and to separate, by filtration or decantation, the insoluble 
portion. The alcoholic solution then evaporated furnishes an 
extract in which the acetate of morphia crystallizes, if in 
sufficient quantity ; or if not, its presence may be denoted by 
reactives. 
If the matters extracted from the organs are solid, they 
should be boiled in a capsule with distilled water, acidulated 
with acetic or hydrochloric acid, and the liquid treated as 
above directed. 
In these investigations the liquids extracted are generally 
more or less colored — and makes it necessary to discolor them 
either with purified animal charcoal or to precipitate the co- 
loring matter by subacetate of lead; filter, and pass a current 
of hydrosulphuric acid gas to separate the excess of lead. 
