Am. jour.  Pharm.  j        Determination  of  Morphine. 
689 
worth  doing  well,  and  he  who  does  it  well  is  duly  rewarded,  not  only 
in  dollars,  but  in  that  state  of  mind  which  one  of  our  philosophers 
states  to  be  the  main  purpose  of  life,  namely,  happiness. 
THE  DETERMINATION  OF  MORPHINE  IN  COMPLEX 
PRODUCTS.1 
Part  I.  A  Revision  of  the  Analytical  Reactions  Employed. 
By  Alfred  Tingle,  Ph.D. 
chemical  laboratory,  department  of  customs,  ottawa,  canada. 
Introduction. 
Laws  aiming  at  the  restraint  of  the  morphine  habit  in  its  various 
forms  have  been  enacted  in  every  civilized  country.  Consequently, 
official  chemists  may  be  called  upon  at  any  time  to  decide  whether 
morphine  is  contained  in  some  pseudo-medicinal  preparation  and 
to  determine  its  amount.  The  question  arises  most  frequently  in 
Asiatic  countries  or  in  those  which  receive  Asiatic  immigrants.  In 
such  cases  the  chemist's  task  is  made  more  difficult  by  the  fact  that 
the  material  to  be  examined  is  likely  to  be  of  Asiatic  manufacture 
and  mysterious  composition.  The  problem  has  been  a  recurring 
one  to  the  writer  for  nearly  nine  years,  commencing  with  the  time 
when  he  was  attached  to  a  Bureau  for  the  Suppression  of  Opium 
Smoking  under  the  Chinese  Government.  No  method  to  be  fol- 
lowed in  such  cases  seems  to  have  been  published,  but  experience 
has  shown  the  practical  need  of  one. 
In  the  course  of  his  endeavors  to  supply  this  want  the  writer  has 
found  so  many  of  the  statements  made  in  the  literature  about  mor- 
phine to  be  mutually  contradictory,  or  based  on  imperfect  evidence, 
that  it  became  necessary  to  take  for  granted  as  little  as  possible. 
Some  reactions  which  might  have  a  bearing  on  the  analytical  be- 
havior of  this  base  have  been  studied  hitherto  only  as  they  throw 
light  on  its  constitution  and  not  on  the  quantitative  side.  All  the 
data  pertinent  to  the  present  investigation  have  therefore  been  care- 
fully revised,  and  the  results  are  here  briefly  set  forth.  A  method 
has  been  devised,  founded  on  these  data,  by  which  morphine  in 
1  Read  by  title  at  the  meeting  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada. 
