MISCELLANY. 
263 
self, and afterwards on others, he has been struck by two circumstances of 
interest in connection with organic chemistry and symptomatology. When 
in a violent attack of cerebral fever, we apply on the principal seat of the 
inflammation a concentrated solution of marine salt, an evident odor of 
chlorine is disengaged, the diseased reaction being analogous to the de- 
composing and deoxygenating action of manganese, in the elimination of 
chlorine from marine salt, by means of sulphuric acid. Is this sign con- 
stant in affections of this class 1 It is for experience to decide. When, 
on the contrary, we employ a solution of ammonia, a strongly characterized 
hircine (goatish) odor is manifested. The same odor has been disengaged 
on the application of hydrochloric acid to the skin. M. Raspail has drawn 
the attention of the profession to this subject in order that they may employ 
this formula, and fix their attention on the analysis of the disengaged sub- 
stances, as they may become characteristic of special affections. 
Ibid, from V Experience* 24 Juitlet, 1840. 
Remarks an the Tinctura Opii JLmmoniata of the Edinburg Pharma- 
copoeia. By J. H. Gilbert, Nottingham. Being a student in the la- 
boratory of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary during the summer of 1839, it 
was occasionally my duty to dispense the Tinctura Opii Jmmoniata, — 
a preparation, the apparently unchemical composition of which led me to 
suspect, that as far as the opium employed is concerned, it could be of no 
utility ; it being well known that ammonia acts as a precipitant to morphia. 
It is true that a great excess of that alkali will, in some solutions of the 
salts of morphia, either prevent its precipitation, or redissolve it when pre- 
cipitated. In order, therefore, to ascertain the fact in the present instance, 
I submitted several separate portions of the tincture to examinatioD at Dr. 
Thompson's laboratory, where also I was a student. 
Two ounces were first boiled in a flask with magnesia ; the magnesian 
precipitate collected and boiled with alcohol ; the alcoholic solution filter- 
ed while hot, and set aside in a warm situation to evaporate slowly : no 
crystals were deposited, and the residual matter, when tested ; was found 
to contain no morphia. 
Four ounces were next treated in a manner varying from the above. 
The liquid, previous to further treatment, was saturated with dilute acid ; 
for when, as before stated, morphia has been held in solution by an excess 
of ammonia, I have found that after expelling the greater part of that excess 
by gentle heat, and then saturating with dilute acid, a salt maybe obtained; 
from the solution of which the morphia may be separated by the usual 
means. In the present case, however, no morphia was detected. 
Having thus failed to detect that principle in the filtered tincture, the 
dregs of a known quantity were macerated for some time in water acidula- 
ted with muriatic acid ; — the filtered liquid, after being digested with ani- 
