396       Detection  of  Strychnine  and  other  Alkaloids.  au^!''i88?™' 
it  has  been  found  necessary  to  dry  and  weigh  it),  will  be  the  weight  of 
morphine  in  the  sample  taken. 
Dr.  Squibb  directs  that  1  gram  of  these  crystals,  finely  powdered, 
should  be  weighed  off  and  treated  in  a  large  test  tube  fitted  with  a 
cork,  with  10  cc.  of  officinal  lime  water ;  upon  occasional  shaking,  the 
Avhole  should  dissolve,  thereby  showing  the  absence  of  narcotine. 
He  also  says  that  the  filter  should  be  tared  both  before  and  after 
weighing  the  crystals.  This,  I  think,  hardly  necessary,  as  the  coloring 
matter  and  gumming  substances  can  be  washed  quite  free  from  the 
paper  and  crystals  without  danger  of  loss  of  morphine  if  the  water 
used  is  quite  cold.  I  have  tried  this  repeatedly,  and  find  that  50  cc. 
of  water  used  in  washing  will  not  make  any  great  difference  in  the 
weight  of  the  morphine. 
It  is  also  my  experience  that  the  use  of  hot  water  in  making  the 
extract  seems  to  work  much  better  than  cold ;  the  final  results  of  the 
assay,  if  carefully  conducted,  being  about  the  same  in  either  case,  but 
the  opium  can  be  completely  extracted  with  much  less  water  in  the 
former  case,  the  resulting  liquid  filters  much  more  readily,  and  the 
magma  is  much  easier  to  wash. 
I  hope  to  continue  this  subject  in  a  future  paper,  describing  some 
results  with  other  methods  upon  the  sample  already  referred  to. — 
Jour.  Am.  Chem.  Soc,  February,  1885,  p.  45-57. 
DETECTION  OF  STRYCHNINE  AND  OTHER  ALKALOIDS 
IN  CASES  OF  POISONING. 
By  T.  Chandelox. 
The  usual  mode  of  isolating  strychnine  in  poison  cases  is  that  of 
Stas :  the  following  process  is  recommended  as  more  convenient  and 
very  accurate.  The  intestines,  etc.,  are  cut  up  very  finely,  mixed  with 
an  equal  weight  of  well-burned  gypsum,  and  the  whole  well  rubbed 
in  a  mortar  until  a  perfectly  homogeneous  mass  results.  This  sets  in 
4  to  5  hours,  when  it  is  easily  broken  up  into  fragments.  These  are 
dried  either  in  a  water-  or  air-bath  at  70°,  pulverized,  and  the  powder 
boiled  with  90  per  cent,  alcohol  to  which  some  tartaric  acid  is  added. 
When  the  powder  has  been  boiled  for  an  hour  in  a  large  flask  con- 
nected with  a  reflux  condenser,  it  is  filtered,  and  the  residue  washed 
with  hot  alcohol.    If  the  reaction  of  the  filtrate  is  not  acid  enough, 
