NOTE  ON  FRENCH  OPIUM. 
457 
white  warts.  The  sulphate  is  anhydrous  at  100^  C,  and  other- 
wise resembles  the  former.  The  two  following  salts  are  less 
soluble  in  water  ;  the  nitrate  contains  4H0,  and  crystallizes  in 
warts  and  needles ;  the  anhydrous  oxalate  appears  in  needles. 
The  acetate  could  not  be  obtained  in  crystals. 
The  military  surgeons,  Dr.  Broxner  and  Dr.  Ettinger,  are 
now  trying  its  medicinal  effects. — [Wittst.  F.  Sehr.  177-188.) 
J.  M.  M. 
NOTE  ON  FRENCH  OPIUM. 
By  M.  H.  Lepage,  Pharmacien. 
For  some  years  past,  many  persons,  amongst  whom  it  is  but 
right  to  place  foremost  M.  Aubergier,  of  Clermond-Ferrand, 
have  been  engaged  in  the  collection  of  opium,  one  of  the  most 
precious  drugs  of  the  Materia  Medica. 
If  the  different  species  or  varieties  of  the  genus  Papaver  yield 
opium,  all  do  not  produce  it  in  equal  quantities.  Thus,  the  white 
officinal  poppy,  the  pink  poppy,  and  the  purple  poppy^  upon 
which  experiments  have  been  especially  made,  must  be  arranged 
in  the  following  order  as  regards  their  produce  :  1,  the  white 
poppy ;  2,  the  purple-brown  poppy  ;  3,  the  pink  poppy.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  opium  obtained  from  these  different  poppies 
must  be  classed  as  follows,  according  to  their  richness  in  mor- 
phia: 1,  opium  from  the  pink  poppy  ;  2,  that  from  the  purple; 
3,  that  from  the  white  officinal  poppy.  Thus,  whilst  the  opium 
from  the  pink  poppy  yields  from  14  to  23  per  cent,  of  morphia, 
that  of  the  white  poppy  never  contains  more  than  from  5  to  8 
per  cent.  As  to  the  opium  from  the  purple  poppy,  which  appears 
to  be  that  in  which  the  quantity  of  morphia  varies  the  least,  it 
yields  from  10  to  12  per  cent.  These  facts  result  from  the 
united  experience  of  MM,  Aubergier,  Decharmes,  Benard, 
O'Reveil,  and  Mialhe.  (See  Pharmaceutieal  Journal^  vol.  ii., 
series  2,  page  229.) 
With  such  results,  I  ask  myself,  if  the  collection  of  opium  is 
a  work  which  may  really  be  put  in  practice  without  much  trouble, 
why  pharmaceutists  who  are  placed  in  favorable  situations,  as 
most  are  who  live  in  small  towns,  do  not  take  upon  themselves 
