Determination  of  Morphine.       { Am'NJ0°ur'I^I8arm" 
The  Action  of  Barium  Hydroxide  Solution  in  Promoting  Rapid 
Filtration. — The  following  substances  have  at  different  times  been 
recognized  as  probably  causing  the  slow  nitration  of  aqueous  ex- 
tracts obtained  from  pills  :  soluble  starch,  soap,  gum  tragacanth,  gum 
acacia. 
It  is  well  known  that  half-saturation  of  a  solution  with  barium 
hydroxide  will  precipitate  starch.  It  has  the  same  effect  on  gum 
tragacanth,  as  shown  by  Experiment  28.  Soap  must,  of  course,  be 
treated  with  larger  amounts  of  barium  hydroxide.  Gum  acacia  is 
not  precipitated  from  solution  by  half-saturation  with  barium  hy- 
droxide, but  after  such  treatment  the  solution  filters  more  rapidly. 
The  excipients  employed  by  native  Chinese  pharmacists,  whatever 
.they  may  be,  usually  give  very  slow-filtering  solutions  when  ex- 
tracted with  water,  but  they  always  respond  readily  to  treatment 
with  barium  hydroxide. 
Experimental  Data  on  the  Analysis  of  Morphine  Pills. 
Determination  of  Morphine  Mixed  with  a  Bread-Crumb  Pill 
Base.  Experiment  23? — Crystallized  morphine  (0.6000  Gm.)  dis- 
solved in  sulphuric  acid,  was  mixed  with  dry  bread  crumbs  (5.4 
Gm.).  The  mixture  was  examined  in  the  manner  detailed  above. 
Five  extractions  were  made. 
Titration  results : 
Total  acid  used  — 15.20  Cc. 
Acid  equivalent  to  the  alkali  =  6.25  Cc. 
Acid  equivalent  to  the  morphine  =  8.95  Cc. 
Weight  of  morphine  calculated  from  titration  =  0.2685  Gm. 
Since  the  amount  titrated  was  10/22  of  the  whole,  6  Gm.  of  pill 
mass  was  thus  found  to  contain  0.5907  Gm.  of  alkaloid  or  9.84  per 
cent.    [Amount  actually  present  =10  per  cent.] 
Determination  of  Morphine  when  Mixed  with  a  Chinese  Pill 
Base.  Experiment  24. — The  material  upon  which  this  experiment 
was  made  was  0.6000  Gm.  of  morphine  mixed  with  fragments  of 
Chinese  pill  (5.4  Gm.)  known  to  be  itself  free  from  morphine. 
The  method  of  operation  was  the  same  as  in  Experiment  23. 
2  The  experiments  in  this  communication  are  numbered  consecutively 
with  those  in  Part  I. 
