37^  Morphine  in  Toxico logical  Cases.  {^^iS^ 
Gifte,  1895,  P-  166.)  Under  a  great  variety  of  conditions  I  have 
found  this  to  be  a  correct  and  exact  observation.  Special  attention 
is  therefore  called,  first,  to  the  purple  color  reaction  obtained  (described 
below)  with  a  freshly  prepared  solution  of  sulphomolybdate  of 
ammonia  (Frohde's  reagent) ;  ptomaines,  Dragendorff  says,  usually 
give  a  brown  or  greenish-brown  color  reaction ;  second,  to  the  blue  color 
reaction  obtained  with  a  dilute  ferric  chloride  solution ;  third,  to  the 
blood-red  color  reaction  obtained  from  the  combined  action  of  sul- 
phuric and  nitric  acids,  as  directed  in  Husemann's  test. 
IV.  Robert  states  distinctly  that  morphine  is  stable  in  cadavers 
for  a  few  weeks.  ("  Dass  das  Morphin  sich  in  Leichen  einige 
Wochen  lang  halten  kann,  ist  sicher ;  p.  565,  Lehrbuch  der 
Intoxikationen,  1895.) 
Barillot  writes  equally  emphatically.  ("  La  morphine  resiste 
bien  a  la  putrefaction  ;  on  a  pu  la  caracteriser  apres  quelques 
semaines  de  melange  avec  des  matieres  putrefies.  Barillot,  Traite 
de  Chimie  legale,  p.  185,  1894"). 
Dragendorff  states  :  "  Most  of  the  alkaloids  are  more  stable  than 
is  usually  believed.  (Dragendorff,  Ermittelung  von  Gifte,  1895, 
p.  142.)  Davoll's  results  deserve  notice.  This  author  says  :  "After 
ten  days'  standing  in  the  open  air  and  in  a  warm  place,  I  recov- 
ered about  50  per  cent,  of  the  morphine  added  to  a  putrid  liver 
while  in  his  further  experiment,  on  the  isolation  of  ptomaines 
from  the  cadaver  of  a  dog,  no  morphine  reactions  were  obtained, 
or,  in  other  words,  there  were  no  ptomaines  present  in  the  final 
purified  product,  obtained  as  in  a  usual  method  of  analysis,  capa- 
ble of  giving  fallacious  tests. 
I  desired  to  insert  an  excerpt  of  the  Buchanan  case  celebre,  which  was 
tried  in  New  York  in  1893  or  1894,  but  have  been  unsuccessful  to  find  a 
report  of  the  chemist  in  the  case.  The  New  York  Supplement,  Vol.  25, 
1894,  contains,  on  page  481,  only  a  legal  report.  So  does  the  N.  Y. 
Reporter,  Vol.  40,  1895,  p.  883. 
V.  A  practical  test  seems  to  be  needed  to  determine  how  small  a 
quantity  of  morphine  can  be  isolated  and  identified ;  the  sensitive- 
ness of  morphine  to  different  reagents  being  well  known,  y&  grain 
was  taken,  the  smallest  quantity  a  layman  could  give.  This  was  dis- 
solved in  a  plate  of  soup.  Soup  was  selected  because  I  wanted  to 
imitate  volume  and  contents  of  a  human  stomach  in  natural  condi- 
tion. 
