Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
September,  1894.  / 
The  Opium  Assay  Method. 
441 
sium  salts  in  the  ash  of  opium  explains  its  possible  presence  in  the 
precipitated  morphine. 
As  the  ash  is  no  doubt  caused  by  the  ignition  of  that  portion  of 
the  precipitate  not  morphine  which  remains  upon  the  filter,  a  few 
experiments  made  with  the  precipitate  obtained  from  the  wash  waters 
may  be  mentioned :  A  little  of  the  precipitate  with  hydrochloric 
acid  and  ferric  chloride  gave  the  test  for  meconic  acid ;  a  little  of  it 
ignited,  moistened  with  ammonium  carbonate,  dried  and  again 
ignited,  gave  a  residue  having  an  alkaline  reaction  towards  litmus 
paper,  showing  the  presence  of  soluble  alkaline  carbonates  and 
proving  the  sparing  solubility  of  the  salt  giving  rise  thereto ;  a 
larger  quantity  did  not  appear  to  be  much  acted  upon  by  dilute 
hydrochloric  acid  until  it  was  heated,  then  it  dissolved  forming  a 
brownish-colored  solution,  upon  cooling,  however,  a  bulky  deposit 
of  crystals  separated  (agreeing  with  statements  in  text-books 
regarding  the  formation  of  calcium  bimeconate  from  calcium  meco- 
nate),  the  addition  of  alcohol  to  make  about  a  33  per  cent,  alcohol 
caused  the  solution  of  almost  the  entire  quantity  of  crystals ;  if  to 
this  solution  a  small  quantity  of  ammonia  was  added  there  was 
instantly  produced  the  separation  of  a  very  fine  almost  white  pre- 
cipitate ;  an  aqueous  opium  solution  evaporated  to  dryness  with 
calcium  hydrate  can  be  extracted  with  a  33  per  cent,  alcohol  with- 
out showing  traces  of  meconates,  a  10  per  cent,  alcohol  does  not 
yield  unmistakable  signs  of  meconates.  These  experiments  sub- 
stantiate the  explanation  of  the  separation  of  this  precipitate  along 
with  the  morphine. 
In  the  second  set  of  experiments  six  assays  were  made,  in  all  of 
which,  excepting  No.  4,  the  pharmacopceial  directions  were  care- 
fully followed ;  in  No.  4,  the  alcohol  was  omitted,  and,  hence,  a 
morphine  was  obtained  having  very  much  the  appearance  of  powdered 
opium.  Nos.  1  to  4  were  made  with  the  powdered  opium  pre- 
viously used,  Nos.  5  and  6  were  made  with  the  same  sample  of  gum 
opium,  but  the  assays  were  made  about  two  weeks  apart. 
