MISCELLANY. 
Tests for Opium — Mode of keeping Extracts. — At a meeting of the Medico- 
Botanical Society, April, 1839, Mr. Everitt stated, that having lately had 
to conduct experiments for the purpose of deciding whether opium were 
present or not in the stomach of persons on whom a coroner's jury had to 
sit, he had paid some extra attention to the subject. Generally speaking, 
in the search after opium, it was the object of the chemist to eliminate the 
morphia; but it was difficult to decide whether this was present or not, 
inasmuch as other alkaloids would give the same results when experimented 
upon. Chemists had long known that meconic acid, when acted upon by 
a solution of a peroxide salt of iron, was changed to a deep-red color. So 
far, then, it was a test of the presence of opium. This test, however, was 
liable to doubt, inasmuch as sulphocyanic acid, which Tiedemann had 
proved to exist in the saliva, would be acted upon similarly to the meconic 
acid, on the addition of a solution of a per-salt of iron. Hence, at a trial 
at Glasgow, in which there could be little doubt that opium was present 
in the stomach of a person supposed to have been killed, the counsel for the 
defence of the prisoner objected to the testing of the presence of meconic 
acid by the solution of iron, on the above ground, and the objection was 
considered fatal. He (Mr. Everitt) had endeavored of late to obtain, by 
experiment, the means of distinguishing whether the red color in question 
was produced by the presence of meconic acid, or of sulphocyanic acid.* 
After a number of experiments upon this point, he had found that if the 
red color depended upon the presence of sulphocyanic acid, the addition 
of a solution of corrosive sublimate had at once an entire bleaching effect 
upon the tested liquid ; while, on the contrary, should the red color depend 
upon the presence of meconic acid, the solution of corrosive sublimate 
would have no effect. The above test had held good in a great variety of 
experiments in which the tested fluid was combined with various animal 
secretions, &c. 
Mr. Everitt then exhibited a preparation of extract of henbane, which 
he had kept in a close-stopped bottle for two years ; the extract was in a 
high state of preservation. Previous to placing it in the bottle, he had 
drawn off all the moisture from the extract by placing it under an air 
pump with sulphuric acid. Mr. Everitt then threw out some hints on the 
advantage of keeping extracts free from moisture. — Lancet. 
* Nearly ten years ago Dr. O'Shaughnessy pointed out in The Lancet, the fact 
that the meconate and sulphocyanate of iron might be distinguished one from another 
by means of an alkaline solution. The sulphocyanate is immediately bleached to a 
dead pale white by the alkali, while the meconate, on the contrary, becomes deeper 
in its tint. — Ld. En. 
