374 
Morphine  in  To xico logical  Cases. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1        July.  1896. 
In  conclusion,  I  would  recommend  that  the  next  revision  of  the 
U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  require  that  from  75  per  cent,  to  80  per  cent,  of 
gamboge  be  soluble  in  alcohol,  and  also  if  a  test  be  given  for  starch, 
that  it  be  capable  of  distinguishing  between  traces  and  appreciable 
quantities  of  that  substance. 
Indianapolis,  Ind.,  June,  1896. 
ON  THE   IDENTIFICATION  OF  MORPHINE  IN 
TOXICOLOGICAL  CASES. 
By  J.  B.  Nagei,voorT. 
I.  It  is  not  generally  believed  that  many  alkaloids  are  far  more 
stable  than  they  are  said  to  be. 
For  obvious  reasons,  morphine  has  been  selected  as  an  example 
of  stability  under  unfavorable  conditions  for  its  existence.  There 
are  not  so  many  alkaloids  to  which  the  laymen — the  public  in  gen- 
eral— have  access.  Morphine  is  one  of  the  few  usually  employed  to 
commit  suicide  or  murder.  Suicide  may  become  important  for  the 
analytical  chemist  to  decide  upon,  if  a  life  insurance  policy  is  in- 
volved. 
Not  so  very  long  ago,  Prof.  David  L.  Davoll,  Jr.,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan,  reported  negative  results  of  a  research  as  to 
certain  morphine  reactions  to  be  obtained  from  ptomaines  [Journal 
of  the  American  Chemical  Society,  Vol.  XVI,  No.  12,  1894,  "  Falla- 
cies of  Post-Mortem  Tests  for  Morphine").  An  investigation 
closely  connected  with  positive  identifications  of  morphine  in  toxi- 
cological  cases. 
Strychnine  is  a  very  stable  alkaloid.  It  has  been  found  from  seven  to  ten 
months  after  burial.  Compare  Blythe,  "Poisons,"  1895,  p.  325;  W.  A. 
Noyes,  in  Journal  of  the  American  Chemical  Society,  1894,  p.  108. 
Coni'ine  was  found  by  Otto  to  resist  decomposition  far  longer  than  one 
would  incline  to  presume.  It  was  positively  identified  in  a  body  in  a  high 
state  of  putrefaction,  in  one  case  in  three  and  one-half  months,  in  another 
between  four  and  five  months.  (Otto,  "  Ausmittelung  der  Gifte,"  1892, 
p.  no.) 
Nicotine  was  found  after  being  exposed  three  months  to  putrefying  influ- 
ences.   {Ante,  p.  no.) 
II.  The  quintessence  of  the  following  lines  could  be  written  in 
these  two  sentences  : 
A.  Morphine  has  been  repeatedly  recovered  from  putre- 
fying animal  matter,  after  fifty  days'  exposure  to  the 
