56  Morphia  Strength  of  Tincture  of  Opium.  {AMFebUEi,i87A4RM' 
owing  to  the  large  per  cent,  of  moisture  it  sometimes  contains.  I  have 
found  it  to  be  adulterated  with  bullets  and  sand,  which  is  something 
every  apothecary  is  acquainted  with,  and  there  are  many  other  things 
used  for  the  same  object,  but  these  two  came  under  my  observation 
and  are  therefore  noticed  here.  From  one  pound  of  opium  I  picked 
out  two  bullets  weighing  one  and  a  half  ounces,  and  about  half  an 
ounce  of  small  gravel  stones.  Opium  costing  nine  or  ten  dollars  per 
pound,  would  make  lead  and  gravel  very  expensive,  especially  when 
you  expect  to  get  opium  instead  of  bullets  and  sand. 
I  am  not  altogether  in  favor  of  making  the  tincture  from  the  pow- 
dered drug,  as  that  too  contains  a  greater  or  less  proportion  of 
moisture,  and  will  certainly  cause  the  tincture  and  all  of  the  opium 
preparations  to  vary  much  in  morphia  strength.  I  have  exposed 
powdered  opium  to  a  temperature  of  100°  F.,  and  kept  it  at  that 
temperature  until  it  ceased  loosing  weight,  and  was  surprised  to  find 
the  three  different  packages  which  I  examined,  losing  7*50,  9-10,  and 
8*20  per  cent,  of  moisture.  It  has  been  a  question  with  me,  ever 
since  I  knew  anything  about  the  drug  business,  whether  powdered 
opium  as  found  in  the  market  was  free  from  adulteration.  If  the 
opium  as  found  in  lump  is  so  much  adulterated,  it  appears  to  me  the 
powdered  would  be  also  ;  bullets  and  large  stones  could  be  easily 
picked  out  before  pounding,  but  small  gravel  stones,  cow  manure, 
starch,  and  many  other  things  could  not ;  but  still,  careful  wholesale 
dealers  could,  to  a  great  extent,  place  a  very  good  article  of  powdered 
opium  in  the  market,  when  others  would  be  only  too  glad  to  have  any- 
thing ground  up  and  sold  as  pure  powdered  opium,  the  adulteration  of 
the  powdered  drug  being  more  difficult  to  detect  than  it  would  be 
previous  to  powdering.  The  proper  way  to  make  tincture  of  opium,  in 
my  opinion,  would  be  to  make  by  assay,  each  fluid-ounce  represent 
four  grains  of  morphia,  which  would  require  the  opium  to  contain 
10*6  per  cent,  of  morphia ;  then  we  would  have  preparations  reliable 
and  uniform  in  strength,  and  physicians  would  not  be  disappointed  in 
the  effects  of  the  medicine,  which  no  doubt  is  very  often  the  case ;  but 
still  it  matters  not  with  some  apothecaries,  whether  the  opium  con- 
tains ten  per  cent,  of  morphia  or  two,  so  they  have  something  that 
resembles  laudanum,  and  enough  of  the  odor  to  show  that  there  is 
some  opium  in  the  preparation.  This  puts  me  in  mind  of  an  incident 
which  happened  when  I  was  an  apprentice,  and  inexperienced  in  the 
profession.    My  preceptor  was  a  man  who  was  very  eager  to  make 
