440 
The  Opium  Assay  Method. 
f  A.m.  Jour.  Pharm, 
X  September,  1894. 
tests  for  potassium  and  sodium,  also  for  sulphuric  acid ;  the  part 
insoluble  in  water  was  composed  very  largely  of  carbonates,  but 
was  not  entirely  soluble  in  the  mineral  acids  due  to  a  small  quantity 
of  silica  which  is  present ;  the  acid  solution  gave  tests  for  aluminum, 
phosphoric  acid  and  magnesium,  but  calcium  salts  were  the  chief 
constituents.  This  examination  of  the  ash  (if  the  opium  was  not 
an  exceptional  sample)  makes  the  correction  based  upon  it  an 
exceedingly  arbitrary  one  ;  therefore,  while  in  the  next  set  of  experi- 
ments this  correction  is  still  used,  it  is  only  for  comparison  with  the 
lime-water  test. 
The  precipitation  of  such  a  complex  mixture  of  salts  of  the 
metals,  is,  in  all  probability,  due  to  the  use  of  so  much  water  in  the 
extraction  which  dissolves  considerable  of  the  opium  constituents 
only  slightly  soluble  in  water,  (the  residue  from  the  opium  extraction 
treated  with  more  water  gave  an  acid  filtrate  with  which  the  mec- 
onic  acid  test  could  always  be  obtained  and  with  which  the  test  for 
calcium  succeeded  at  times) ;  the  concentrating  of  these  acidulous  fil- 
trates involves  no  precipitation  of  mineral  matter  due  to  the 
accompanying  concentration  of  the  acid  present,  the  addition  of 
alcohol  even  to  the  concentrated  solution  produces  no  precipitation 
(in  the  course  of  three  to  four  hours),  probably  due  to  the  solubility 
of  meconic  acid  and  the  acid  meconates  in  the  diluted  alcohol ;  the 
precipitation  is  caused  by  the  addition  of  ammonia,  changing  the 
acid  into  an  alkaline  reaction,  but  is  not  immediate,  requiring  prob- 
ably as  much  as  three  hours  before  it  commences,  and  probably  as 
much  as  thirty-six  to  forty  hours  before  it  is  complete. 
In  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  1891,  page  164,  was 
published  a  paper  by  Dr.  Alfred  Dohme,  on  "  The  Chemistry  of 
Opium,"  in  which  the  following  quantitative  analysis  of  the  ash  is 
recorded  : 
Ash  equals  3-89  per  cent,  containing  in  100  parts: 
Silica,  11-14;  phosphoric  oxide,  8  07;  sulphuric  oxide,  28-39; 
ferric  oxide,  1-98;  calcium  oxide,  9  04;  magnesia,  8-31;  potassium 
oxide,  30-19;  carbonic  oxide,  hydrochloric  acid  and  not  determined 
constituents,  2-88 ;  one  of  the  conclusions  arrived  at  in  this  paper, 
namely,  "  that  the  silica  in  opium  is  present  in  the  form  of  sand  " 
cannot  be  accepted  as  being  entirely  correct,  since  some  silica  was 
found  in  the  ash  of  the  crude  morphine,  and  this  must  have  been 
present  in  solution.    The  finding  of  such  a  large  quantity  of  potas- 
