Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
May,  1896.  J 
Opium  Assaying. 
257 
Triturate  the  substances  until  they  liquefy,  and  add  enough  water 
to  make  100  c.c.  This  liquid  and  also  those  prepared  from  other 
quantities  of  these  materials  retained  their  state  of  aggregation  at 
ordinary  temperatures,  and  even  when  cooled  to  io°  C,  unless  agi- 
tated ;  then  small  crystals  separated.  These  crystals  redissolved  at 
20°  C. 
Atlantic  City,  N.  J.,  April  20,  1896. 
[In  the  Pharmaceutical  Era  for  April  9,  1 896,  John  M.  Tobin 
states  that  a  solution  of  phosphate  of  sodium  may  be  made  so  that 
each  teaspoonful  will  contain  between  75  and  85  grains  of  the  salt 
by  triturating  in  a  warm  mortar  5  parts  of  sodium  "  nitrite  "  crys- 
tals and  13  parts  of  "  acid  citric  crystals"  until  liquid,  and  then 
adding  85  parts  of  granular  sodium  phosphate  and  triturating  and 
shaking  until  a  solution  results. 
Evidently  an  error  has  crept  into  Mr.  Tobin's  statement ;  because, 
according  to  our  experience,  citric  acid  will  actively  decompose 
sodium  nitrite  with  evolution  of  red  fumes.  Sodium  nitrate  was 
undoubtedly  intended. —  The  Editor .] 
OPIUM  ASSAYING. 
By  Lyman  F.  Kebeer. 
Numerous  and  exhaustive  as  have  been  the  investigations  on  the 
analysis  of  opium,  yet  the  morphiologist  is  constantly  encountering 
new  difficulties  in  the  course  of  his  work.  The  status  of  the  pres- 
ent official  method  in  a  measure  contributes  to  these  difficulties,  in 
that  it  does  not  require  the  analyst  to  apply  a  correction  to  the 
crude  morphine  obtained  by  the  prescribed  process.  This,  undoubt- 
edly, has  left  an  unguarded  avenue  for  the  clever  adulterator,  and 
the  writer  has  reasons  to  believe  that  it  has  been  taken  advantage 
of.  It  is  well  known  that  the  same  process  will  not  yield  equally 
pure  morphine  with  the  various  kinds  of  opium  met  with  in  an 
analytical  laboratory.  Under  these  existing  conditions  embarrassing 
circumstances  may  arise,  one  analyst  applying  a  correction  while 
another  neglects  to  do  so. 
A  year  ago  the  writer  read  a  paper  before  the  New  Vork  Section 
of  the  Society  of  Chemical  Industry,1  in  which  the  several  methods 
1  l895>  J-  Soc.  Chem.  /nd.,  14,  464 ;  abstr.  Am.  Jour.  Pharm.,  67,  398. 
