116     Method  for  Estimating  Morphia  in  Opium.  {AMaJr°chEi 
Pharm. 
1872. 
In  order  to  prevent  on  living  animals  the  licking  off  of  the  rubbed 
parts,  bandages  were  applied,  also  the  injection  with  curare  was  made 
after  long  rubbing,  or  with  a  solution  of  chloral,  after  which  experi- 
ment the  animal  lives  still  some  hours  (27  hours — 4  hours).  But  the 
skin  should  not  be  excoriated  by  rubbing.  Gold  coins  were  also  in- 
terpolated in  the  subcutaneous  tissue,  and  in  the  cavity  of  the  chest 
and  abdomen  to  detect  the  amalgamation. 
The  opinion  that  the  mercury  enters  into  the  apparatus  of  breath- 
ing during  the  rubbing  is  refuted  by  the  proof  that  mercury  changes 
into  vapor  only  by  high  temperature.  Other  physiologists  object  that 
very  thin  molecules  of  mercury  which  are  suspended  in  the  air  may 
enter  in  the  body  by  the  mouth.  Dr.  Neumann  refutes  this  opinion 
by  the  following  experiments.  He  separates  the  head  and  the  ante- 
rior part  of  the  body  by  a  correspondent  aperture  in  the  window, 
from  the  atmosphere  in  which  the  inunction  takes  place,  so  that  no 
particle  of  mercury  could  be  breathed.  Of  those  experiments  the  re- 
sults were  the  following  : — By  rubbing  the  blue  ointment  in  the  un- 
wounded  skin,  globules  of  mercury  enter  by  the  air  follicles  as  far  as 
the  bulb  in  the  sebaceous  glands,  which  have  an  open  aperture,  and 
then  they  enter  in  the  superior  part  of  the  sudoriferous  glands.  Bat 
Dr.  Neumann  could  not  find  what  direction  the  globules  take  from 
there  till  the  apparatus  of  circulation,  and  in  what  form  ;  probably 
they  are  changed  into  sublimate,  and  are  resolved  by  the  superficial 
lymphatic  system. 
On  the  contrary,  the  rubbed  mercury  as  blue  ointment  can  in  the 
blood,  and  in  the  interior  organs  only  be  found  by  chemical  methods, 
also  the  sublimate  when  it  is  received  by  the  unwounded  skin. 
Globules  of  mercury  could  never  be  found  in  the  subcutaneous  tis- 
sue and  in  the  cutis  vera. — Med.  Press  and  Circular,  Dec.  13,  1871. 
A  METHOD  FOR  THE  ESTIMATION  OF  MORPHIA  IN  OPIUM. 
By  John  T.  Miller. 
The  author,  in  endeavoring  to  make  use  of  the  liberation  of  iodine 
from  iodic  acid  by  morphia,  for  the  estimation  of  this  alkaloid  in 
opium,  obtained  at  first  unsatisfactory  results,  to  clear  up  the  causes 
of  which  numerous  experiments  were  tried,  only  a  few  of  which  need 
be  mentioned  : 
1.  Some  narcotine  was   added  to  the  standard  morphia  solution, 
